Time Swap
by bandcrazy01
Summary: Fifteen-year-old Amos Kane is handed a book by a stranger and gets more than he even wanted. Sequel to the POJ & TKC crossover An Odd Introduction. May switch the category later. Rated T just in case.
1. Chapter 1

-Amos Kane-

It started to snow, first fall of it for winter. I inhaled the cold air as I watched a couple hurry along into a building under their customary black umbrella. I shot them a puzzled look, but I know already. I know why New York dislikes the precipitation; hiding from the weather like it's the source of all their problems in life. They don't appreciate being sick.

My father has the same problem. He's wrapped up in his work under the Chief Lector that Julius and I rarely see him even as a squadron under him. But he's proud of it, he relishes in all of the stress it gives him. But brushes family and life in general away, telling it all he doesn't have time for it.

Don't have time to walk in the snow? Please, during the time it takes you to wait for your coffee machine you could have at least spent three minutes outside. Oh, but the world doesn't stop spinning simply because you desire space from your occupation. You were handed this by a higher power, you better step it up a notch and just lose the ability to sleep altogether.

I brought my eyes to the sidewalk as a man in a heavy coat shot me a dirty look, carrying his umbrella just high enough to rest above his head. I didn't want to question what it was over; it could be a variety of things anyways. I just kept strolling along, heading back to the mansion as the busy bees of New York were rushing out the doors of their homes to their prisons.

"Hey you," a voice called out amongst the mass of sounds.

I ignored it, usually people don't talk to someone they don't know. Let alone an African-American walking around New York. But I'll spare you the conversation on their high profiling, because the world doesn't stop to anyone.

So I stopped as I took in a male grinning towards me. "I'm talking to you, buddy," he announced pompously.

Oh great, must be a salesman. "I only had enough cash for the coffee, sorry," I lied through my teeth, deciding this would be something to pick my pace up for.

"Don't worry about that, I have something for you," he continued, digging through his satchel.

I soon realized that he too didn't have a metal loop of black cloth hovering above his head. In that note, I hesitated to stop and see what he was about. He stopped, amusement playing on his lips as he straightened, still gripping something in his bag. "I see you walking by here every morning. You take on those glares like a pro, kiddo."

My eyes hardened, taking in that it happens to be another of the same skin color. "It's something you adjust to; you must be new here-"

"I'd like to give you something, just because I like your attitude," He interrupted swiftly.

I paused, giving the man a quick look over. He was wearing a nicely pressed tan suit, black hair resting on his shoulders. "Uh, how about you just _keep_ it?" I suggested swiftly. "You seem like a nice man, Sir, but you probably need it more than I. So-" I took a step as he blocked my next.

"It's a gift, you can't refuse one. That ruins it all," the man urged, a small smile got me to sigh.

"Look, no one in the right mind set hands gifts out just because they run into someone who has the same skin-" I started swiftly, releasing it all before him as two highly dressed women glared at me and huffed off.

"It's not like that at all," the man continued, pulling whatever was in his bag out finally. "You look like you need something to distract yourself. Books are a great way of doing so."

Yeah, I know, I've been trying to shove that piece of info down my own brother's throat for years. But being respectful towards the man, I stayed put, a little interested as to the tan tissue paper covering something rectangular in his right hand. "I hope this helps," He handed it to me, placing it in my left hand.

"Uh, hold on, what is it?" I asked, barely given a chance to grip the tissue paper before it could fall.

"It's a book I wrote, not very popular mind you, but maybe it can enlighten you from your funk you have going on." The gentleman informed quickly, shooting me a smile.

"So, you're a writer, not a salesman?" I asked amongst the confusion.

"Yes Sir, just not recognized yet," he continued on. "Anyways, do us both a favor and read it for me. Maybe when we cross paths again you can tell me what you think?"

"You're making a big assumption that I'll actually have time to read it," I started.

He smirked in reply, "You walk down to this café every morning to order the same coffee, the most expensive one just so you can help the young lady in her struggles. I _think_ you have time to read a book."

And with that he walked off, leaving me confused as I blinked a few times at the mysterious book with its cover still hidden from me. "Hold on, I didn't get your…" I started as I turned, finding he disappeared long before I spoke up, "name."

* * *

I was welcomed back by my brother rubbing his eyes as he kept a death grip on his mug of coffee, watching the news on the television in the Great Room in his attempt to wake up for the day. "Morning," I greeted happily, tossing out my more grumpy attitude from earlier.

His tired brown eyes took me in before responding, "Morning, early bird. I see you went for another visit to the café."

"Why wouldn't I?" I asked, deciding to sit on the couch next to him.

"Perhaps because you can make coffee here instead of walking twenty blocks back and forth?" Julius offered with a slightly irritated tone.

I rolled my eyes, "I already told you, her family's going through a tough time. They have to _literally_ move from their house because off all the damage caused to it from robberies. And the cops still refuse to recognize that there's a group of kids throwing rocks at the neighborhood's windows-"

"I just don't understand why you feel the need to be involved in New York's lives, Amos." Julius continued, taking a sip of black coffee. "They're going to forget about you, so why bother?"

"It's the difference between knowing and caring, Julius." I took a sip of espresso in hopes to calm myself before the urge to slap him actually reaches my arm's nerves. "Why are you up anyways?" I asked, taking a glance at the clock to see it read ten to six.

"We're getting called in, urgent." He downed the rest of his coffee. "So I'll meet you on the roof in ten."

I watched him get up from the couch, leaving me in the Great Room with just my coffee. "Okay, the one week we get promised off and we're called in." I grumbled to the thought.

* * *

We met up with Desjardins in the airport, which slowed our paces a little as we decided to talk before we have to face my father for whatever reason he decided to call us down. "Do you know maybe? I mean, you're number three-" Julius started asking.

Michel huffed it off immediately. "I only know as much as the two of you know. Or did you forget that part?"

"In other words, Julius, shut up," I teased, earning a glare from my brother.

It appears that today just isn't his day either, and he's not about to pretend that it's normal. Then again, nothing is normal. But I've decided the best way to deal with it is just to relax, try not to be too serious. Though working under my father, you really do need to be serious.

At the closet, we kept silent, making sure no one was watching us slip in, closing the door behind us. Julius led the way, Michel and I following close behind. It seemed like a normal day for the First Nome, busy with trainees and teachers wrapping up their day. I rather miss being part of it; it was at least something stable to go by.

You are probably wondering why my brother is our leader and not Michel. I know, it is weird seeing a hundred-fifty year old man take orders from a seventeen year old. Thing is, Desjardins and our father are on awful terms. So he has been content with the fact, I guess.

You see, the great Jabari Kane, (and yes, he is actually Egyptian), believes that the great God, Horus, has been keeping a very protective eye over our family ever since Narmer. To supposedly receive his full blessing, though, you must be a combat magician. I won't go into the whole 'Horus spoke these words specifically to our ancestor' thing, I'm pretty sure the entire First Nome has heard ten different versions alone.

Anyways, Michel isn't of royal blood. In fact, he is related to the great Champollion, who translated the Rosetta Stone. Of course, Michel is also proud of his heritage, and despises 'the stuck up royals' as he calls us. Well, I don't know if that's how he feels towards Julius and I, but I _know_ for a fact that he would adore cutting down my father's ego one day.

Also, I should add the important detail that when our squadron was being made, Julius was the only one my father wanted in it. Iskandar agreed that Julius qualified to join a squadron being sixteen at the time, but there was just no conceivable way my brother was actually going to get anything done alone. So, he tossed Michel and I in. Michel simply because he is the third most powerful magician, and probably to get Jabari and Michel away from each other.

There's been quite a debate between the five of us on the count of me being involved though. Big surprise? No, my father is involved. See, I still have a year left before I can 'legally' be in a squadron. I guess that is actually one thing Michel and my father can agree on. Nevertheless, Iskandar and Julius have supported keeping me in; pointing out the little things I have done in our assignments. Plus, it's the Chief Lector that wants me in the group; you _really_ can't offend his choices.

Now the topic of squadrons, I realize not many people understand what it even means or even _heard_ of one no matter how many years they spend living in the First Nome. It's actually a special kind of work; you pretty much need inside support to be in one.

Squadrons are the ones the Chief Lector turns to for recon, banishing Gods, or even raid a rebel base; little more weight off his shoulders. The size of a squad varies; it generally depends on the magicians in each group. There are a few that are solos; usually sent out for recon assignments. The biggest I've heard of so far is ten, and those groups are usually sent to fend off any attacks rebel magicians attempt.

The 'Kane Squadron', as my father calls it, qualifies for small assignments that solos probably can't succeed at. In other words, we are pretty much working every day. We return to report from one to be handed the next. Though I am sure the fact that our father organizes which squadron gets what assignment has something to do with it.

Julius hesitated to knock on the door to the right of the Hall of Ages. "Come in," the familiar voice responded gruffly.

The room isn't too special, it's just a two part section dedicated to the second most powerful magician of the Per Ankh. The first part is like his office, which happens to have a desk containing towers of new files and cabinets full of reports. The room connected to it is his bedroom, which is another reason why we don't see him outside of work.

He had been organizing the new files into about thirty new piles, some stacks being much taller than the others are. "Oh good, I was starting to wonder if I need to hand it to someone else," he muttered as he tossed a manila folder onto one of the three taller towers.

"Perhaps you should then, seeing as you stated yourself that we were getting the week off," Michel snarled.

The great Jabari Kane, as everyone else knows him by, has the reputation of being an intimidating combat magician. Julius and I have heard a few stories, none of them really being anything I can consider being proud of. However, he is three hundred years old; I guess assassinating groups of rebels would mean more back then. Honestly, it doesn't help me like him any more than I do now.

He rolled his dark brown eyes, brushing off Desjardins complaint. "It requires a group that understands how the politics of the Per Ankh operate. Better than most, even."

"Uh, why is that?" Julius asked, crossing his arms as his interest stuck on our father.

He sighed, deciding to stretch his legs out as he stood up. The top of his short black hair is visible above the tallest tower of paperwork as he circled the desk, leaning against the front of it to see us better. He is wearing the usual flashy yellow cloak hanging on his broad shoulders, covering the back of his white linen clothing.

He regarded me with a huff, which I just quickly ignored; I had been getting it all morning as it was. "I've received top notch information that we may have a planned assassination in the works."

"Hmm," Michel decided to humor him with an irritated response.

Jabari glared at him quickly. "You don't need to be involved if you prefer, Desjardins. It's not like I want you in it anyways. You can take Amos with you too-"

"Hey," Julius snapped quickly, halting the burst of a very old fight. "What do you mean 'top notch'?"

Our father faced his oldest of kin. "My best recon magician found out about it, even provided solid evidence to it in his report," He explained. "Unfortunately, our Chief Lector refuses to believe it."

"Oh no, the Chief Lector told you it _wasn't_ top notch? What will you ever do with yourself-" Michel started to rant, letting his disdain pour into each word.

"Can we _please_ listen to the details?" I calmly interrupted, which Michel cleared his throat with a nod of respect.

"The two of you don't need to concern yourselves," my father waved off. "I only want Julius on this-"

"Oh, so you can be hassled by the thought that your son _isn't_ you?" Michel dissed quickly. "Or better yet, you finally recognize Amos?"

Ugh, maybe I should have hung around a park for the rest of the day. Maybe even read the book the odd stranger handed me earlier. I could tell no one was going to try to even pretend today was a great day to be alive. Now my attempts are dashed, and I really wanted to tell them they won and walk out.

I caught a defeated sigh from my brother, muttering something under his breath that the older magicians' bickering covered from me. "It would be easier for _one_ magician to sneak around rather than three, Desjardins," my father growled.

"Then find yourself another squad!"

They looked ready to duke it out, both men staring the other down to find the other won't relent. "You know what?" I finally spoke up, my own temper shining through. "I'm okay with not being involved in this one. But I'm _not_ okay with spending my day off watching the two of you try to tear the other's head off. So, I'll dismiss myself, have fun." I left quickly before anyone could reply.

I took a deep breath to relax before I could find myself snapping at someone. The door opened to find Julius closing it quietly behind him. "Looks like everyone's in a foul mood," he felt the need to announce as he faced me.

"Sorry, I usually can handle the disgusted looks-"

Julius rolled his eyes, "The point is you shouldn't have to put up with it, Amos."

I crossed my arms as he leaned against the door. "Anyways, I'm thinking we'll pass on this assignment. We were guaranteed a break, the first one since we've started a year ago."

"You should take it, he's eager for you to-" I urged.

"So I can get captured on the first fight I find myself in? Besides, being squadron leader means I don't ditch any part of my team." He gave me a small smile as I shook my head. "And I want a break from all of this too, getting royally sick of it."

"What are you revolted by?" I uncrossed my arms as I took in the hint of sadness shining in his eyes. "You should be taking every advantage he throws at you, Julius."

"I'm tired of playing this reputation for his approval." His eyes hardened, distress allowing itself to emerge on his expression. "I'm starting to believe that I don't want to be known for any of this."

"Uh, okay?" I stood stumped, and yes shocked too because I didn't think Julius would ever feel that way.

He sighed, posture slouched a little before he finally stood straight, stopping his leaning on the door. "I suppose I should go back and tell them the news, hu?"

"Or we could just ditch and make them figure it out themselves," I offered, not really wanting to know what Michel and Jabari were doing now to kill each other.

"Come on Amos, you know our father, he'll hand us a lecture on it once he's done making a mess of his office." Julius's right hand hesitated at the door.

We both flinched to what sounded like glass being shattered beyond the door. "On the other hand, I think my own life is at risk if I bother taking a step in." Julius quickly released the doorknob.

"That's the spirit, let's run home now before one of them catch up." Julius laughed as I gestured him to come along.

* * *

Our mother, Nadia Kane, welcomed us back on the veranda. "I think that's the quickest briefing the two of you have been given," she smiled brightly, green eyes probably being the happiest thing I've seen all day.

"Hmm, we ditched," Julius quickly informed her, which she shot me a puzzled look.

"They were rearing to tear into each other's throat today," I summed up, earning an understanding nod from our mother.

"Don't tell your father I said this, but that is perhaps the wisest thing for the two of you to do," she supported quickly. "Kyra just stormed back into her room, something about plans being dashed by your work?"

"Uh, yeah, we said we would go watch some Shakespeare play she's been wanting to see. Some high school project in Prospect Park," Julius confirmed.

"Oh," she nodded of her approval, "good, it's been awhile since the three of you have done something."

"It's been awhile since we've been home," Julius added with a smile.

"Yes, well, be assured your father will be hearing my end on this," she added harshly, eyes reading a possible fight. "Anyways, go make Kyra's day, she's rather disappointed at the moment."

And we made the dangerous venture towards our cousin's room. Kyra isn't a Kane; she is in fact a Teal. The Teal family pretty much headed the Forty-Sixth Nome in Seattle, our mother being of said family. That Nome has pretty much been there since the Corp of Discovery headed west. Our grandfather built it and headed it.

Kyra's family lived in Seattle until our uncle and aunt died in a car accident. In the mess created by the tragedy, Iskandar decided that five-year-old Kyra should be amongst closer family members. Nine years of her living with us, and I swear she is more of a sister than a cousin. Maybe it's the fact that I've caught myself sneaking around with her rather than my brother. But that's again a subject on my father.

In my father's eyes, women should be more involved in healing or sympathetic magic, _not_ combat. When she turned ten, our grandfather handed her his bow, pretty much deciding that his son-in-law can stew on it. She became obsessed and perfected archery, keeping her staff along in case anything happens.

She has our mother's emerald eyes, but her mother's tan complexion and brown wavy hair. Soft hands, which is weird for a practiced archer but she uses a lot of lotion. And insists to wear the light blue cloak our mother made for her a few years back.

She just turned fourteen a month ago, only having our mother to celebrate it with her. As you can probably guess, she was thoroughly upset with us. It's not like we _like_ working, we would have preferred harassing our cousin over being a year older than put up with a false report and fight our way out of a hostage situation. Therefore, when we came home last night, she insisted we go with her to this play to make up for it.

I knocked on the door this time, Julius keeping away in fear. I smirked to the thought, I can handle Kyra, but Julius has to deal with our father. "Yes Aunt Nadia?" Kyra's tone sounded distressed through the door.

"Why are you locking yourself in the room?" I asked promptly.

The door burst open, her green eyes angrily set on me. "Amos Kane, you are beyond evil, you know that? You _promise_ to go, and then get up to go work? Is that all you two are concerned over anymore? Appeasing your father?"

I rolled my eyes out of irritation now, "I already explained this Kyra-"

Her pulling me against the wall, eyes doing their best to stare me down, interrupted me. It's kind of hard for her to do, seeing as I'm still two inches taller than her, but that has never brought her down. The only thing that scares me is her aim with that bow. "Why did you go?" She demanded.

I gripped her right hand and managed to pry her fingers away from the collar of my shirt. "The word 'urgent' was used," I excused.

"_Oh_, so that's all he needs to do to summon you away?" She took a step back, proceeding to glare at Julius in the same manner. "What are you doing here then? Go-"

"We didn't take the assignment, Kyra," Julius continued, keeping his posture straight to show that he is even taller than she is, beating her by six inches. "So, when is this play?"

She sighed, releasing her anger as she faced me again, adjusting the collar of my shirt. "Three more hours."

"Good, that gives us some time to relax from our close fight," I announced, quickly walking down the hall to my room.

I only spotted Kyra glaring at Julius again as he gave her a sheepish grin as I closed the door behind me. Honestly, I didn't want to be caught dead walking around New York in 'magician' clothing. I prefer the suit; it also helps try to ease the glares from the locals.

And, well, I was kind of curious about the book. I pulled it out of my Duat safe to find it still wrapped in the tissue paper, and still surprisingly warm. I set it down on the desk, peering at the paper curiously. It didn't look it was set on fire or anything, so why is the book warm after being left in the Duat for four hours?

After a minute of staring at it, I decided to peel the tissue paper off, finding a blue light illuminating the book. My eyes narrowed as I pulled my hands back. As a bookworm, I'm pretty certain that books don't give off light on a regular basis.

Blue light, something magical has been applied to this. That stranger wasn't just some regular like he played himself as. I told myself to cover it, hide it in the Duat again until I can talk with Desjardins about it.

My interest got the best of me, taking a pen to the book's tissue paper in an attempt to read the title. There wasn't one, it apparently was a leather bound book, and it looked fairly old too. I hesitated to move the pen towards the book, opening it to the first page.

In dark blue lettering, the words on the first page bore into my vision as I took it in. "To my favorite Chief Lector, who finds himself a man full of regrets. I gift you a solution, enjoy."

As I spoke the words aloud, I wondered how the man could mistake me to be the Chief Lector. Really, there's a very big age difference. Even more, 'full of regrets'? Shoot, I've found myself regretting even getting up this morning. But I've never heard of anyone giving gifts because of someone's irritating father.

I closed the book, rather confused now. I placed the pen down and immediately went to wrapping it in the tissue paper again. However, as I started to do this, the book gained temperature, suddenly setting the tissue paper on fire. I stood up in alarm; eyes narrow as the light from the book took over the room.

**I had a random idea suddenly come up, so I will be continuing on from the crossover An Odd Introduction. Again mainly focused on the Kane Chronicles, I may switch the category later once I reach some of their meetings.**

**I'm seriously considering editing An Odd Introduction. Firstly, I recognize I didn't have many parts for the Greeks and Romans, it was hung up on Egyptians. Secondly, I kind of rushed to post it up.**

**This will be taking place roughly a week after the events in An Odd Introduction. Starting with characters before the Kane Chronicles.**

**Tell me what you think? I realize this chapter was long, but I figured I'd give a jest on what young Amos was used to. Thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

-Amos Kane-

"You know," Carter finally spoke up after burying his face in blueprints, "if this is going to be the hardest thing for a Pharaoh to decide on, I might be set later on in life."

I let out an amused chuckle. "Sorry, I don't think you're that lucky."

He peered up at me, and then decided he needed a break from the studying as he sat back in the chair. "Well, with the exception for the two meetings we have to get ready for," he corrected after a moment of thought, sighing out of stress.

I noted how exhausted he has been getting, not being used to having so much responsibility thrown at him. I know, that's what happened my first few days as Chief Lector. "Carter, call it a night," I decided, slowly moving the blueprints he had been studying for ten hours towards me. "I'll see if I can find anything of use."

Carter blinked at me for a few seconds before planting his right hand on the blueprints, stopping me. "I'm not going to allow you to upstage me again, Chief Lector," Carter teased, moving the paperwork towards him again.

"Upstage? Carter Kane-"

"I might as well adjust to the work now," Carter continued anyways. "And yes, upstage. It means to outperform-"

"I don't need the vocabulary lesson," I reassured as I let my hand lift from the papers. "I'm just looking out for you. You're exhausted," I pointed out swiftly. "Maybe we should just take a break for a day, gather our senses again before attempting to figure this mess out."

Carter weighed my words for a minute before looking up at the clock. "Wow, it's already five?"

"Yes Sir, and we haven't even bothered eating anything all day," I added. "And if you turn up dead from starvation, your father will kill me."

Carter rolled his eyes now, "This talk again? What did I say last time? Something like if Sadie let Zia do something stupid?"

"Hmm, did I tell you that your little example was also a horrible stab at trying to explain my situation?" I smiled as his eyes hardened.

But he caved, putting the blueprints into the manila folder neatly. "The more time we end up spending the more I realize how annoying you are," Carter muttered under his breath.

"Glad to hear so, Great House," I spoke up which he again gave me a blank look.

His expression quickly changed to scorn, "Why the names? Come on, we're related for crying out-"

"Sign of respect, you are above me if you haven't figured that out yet. I also discovered that thinking of you as my nephew or a teen makes me look down on you as your guardian. You know, not how a Chief Lector should be treating the Pharaoh. Actually, I could have myself beheaded for that-"

"And the rambling has to stop," Carter complained, staking the five manila folders on the middle of the desk. "And really, Uncle Amos? We're family, since when should you be acting scared around me?"

"I didn't say anything about being fearful of you, Carter," I corrected swiftly. "I'm just informing you of the old days of the Pharaohs."

"Well, this is the 'new days', and I'm severely changing the rules." Carter stood up now, his right hand on the chair. "And why should _we_ have to change how we feel towards each other just because of rank? You are our guardian, and pretty much the only adult in the Kane family no matter how much your cousin says otherwise."

I caught myself laughing to his words as his brown eyes hardened in response. "So, in times of peace we'll admit this, but when I tell you to listen it's time to completely ignore my words?"

He smirked now, "Well, if you pardon me for stating the facts here, you were kind of being a hard-headed donkey."

I was the one to roll my eyes this time. "Veranda? I'm sure Sadie and Walt are on schedule," Carter spoke before I could.

I nodded, scooting the files towards the wall on my desk. "Yes, I'll be there in a minute," I reassured before he closed the door.

I sighed, brushing my fingers quickly through my hair as I glanced at the folders. We've spent two weeks just looking at old blue prints to some of the newer Nomes in hopes we might decide on how we want to rebuild the First. No luck, blueprints are apparently far and in between in the Per Ankh. And the last Nome built was in Antarctica, which doesn't help seeing as it has been built like a prison.

And we have barely even touched the topic on our upcoming meetings. The first being with the Nome leaders, which will undoubtedly be explosive thanks to present tension and Lady Menshikov. Then the dreaded meeting with the Greeks and Romans, which will more than likely result in several meetings with how many rules will need to be discussed.

At least Carter's managed to gain more confidence in his leadership abilities, but it seems to still be on shaky ground. And, well, Sadie's being her usual rowdy self, this time being a little more vocal about her feelings for Walt than normal. The Gods have been preoccupying themselves rather than harassing us, with exception of Bast and Walt hosting Anubis.

I peered out the window to see the sun setting, the sky giving off a cloudy pink. One disappointing thing about the view in Brooklyn House, you only see a small portion of the beauty of the sun rising and setting. The skyscrapers think they're more important.

I finally stood up, pushing the chairs in and proceeded to smooth out the crimson suit. After a moment I froze, taking in the color I told myself to be accustomed to. I was only wearing it now to keep any backstabbing magicians wary about trying anything. But in all reality, I'm alone. And I still haven't figured out the best way to explain it to the Twenty-First Nome, not even sure if I will tell them or not.

"It's for the best Amos, time to get over it," I muttered quickly to myself, purposely driving my eyes away from the haunting color.

* * *

"You are dead, Felix!" Sadie immediately screamed out as I took the last step into the Great Room. "You know I hate my tea cold!"

"Well sorry Sadie, but the penguins prefer it that way," Felix defended. "So either deal with it or use your temper to unfreeze it!"

I don't know if anyone should be surprised that Felix has gained a rather Sadie attitude seeing as the two are always butting heads. "Hey!" Zia's voice rang from the veranda. "Before we even start fighting over something so petty, let me provide a solution."

I walked in to find Zia pretty much set fire to all of the mugs in the veranda. "I'd say you're allowing things to get out of control Rashid," I spoke up, making the entire room, with the exception of Carter, jump.

She managed to get the fire to die down as she shot me a sheepish smile. "Sorry Amos, just annoyed beyond belief today." She sat down; ignoring the glares she was receiving from Sadie and Felix.

"Well well, the guys decided to join us for once." Sadie was quick to tease, deciding she'll get revenge on Zia later. "Has the lack of a social life beyond the two of you pressure you to escape that little study?"

"Oh no, but I _did_ miss your snide remarks Sadie." I smiled, grabbing a mug that was preheated. "And since you want to see it that way, perhaps you can help us with the building arrangements."

Sadie immediately went into sulk mode; Walt smiled softly and placed his right hand gently on her left. "How _is_ that going, by the way?" Kyra's voice spoke up.

I bowed my head; I thought she would have left for Seattle by now. "Not very well, we've barely made headway on it," I explained as I filled my plate with just whatever was there after pouring myself coffee.

They had apparently saved the head of the table and the chair to the right. Who knows how long they've been doing that, especially since it was vacant now. Carter seemed to think it was odd as well as we shared a glance. "Pharaoh, why don't you finally take the head of the table?" I suggested, sitting beside Kyra.

He did snarl to the title drop, but kept his remarks back as he sat down. Kyra shot me a sly smile of approval as the table returned to their previous conversations before Sadie's outburst. During which I noted in silence Julian's flirting with Alyssa and Jaz doing her best to distance herself from Sean.

"Why are you still lingering here?" I finally asked Kyra, keeping my voice below the other conversations as to not earn the children's' attention.

She swallowed down her sip of lemonade, glancing across the table to see Felix 'sneak' bits of fish to a penguin he thought he cleverly hid under the table. "Seattle is stable; I figure I'll let them adjust before I show up."

"You'd rather be here, don't beat around the bush." I rolled my eyes as I took a forkful of mashed potatoes.

"Well, you went missing three times since the whole demigod thing started. Can you blame me for being cautious?" Her green eyes shot me a daring look.

"Someone's a little hung up on the past," I teased, earning a light punch to my left shoulder. "I think we can officially say we're back to normal on the scales of Ma'at and Chaos. So, you should head back to Seattle."

"Well, I can always ask someone above your rank to allow me to stay another week," Kyra pointed out.

"With the exception that you've pretty much scared him from eating breakfast in the veranda when you're around," I informed as I lifted the mug.

Her eyes narrowed, "I see my dear cousin is spreading rumors again."

I laughed a little to that, "No, that wasn't my doing. It's all on you. I even gave him a fair warning on your morning attitude."

"Oh yes, you just remain innocent, don't you?" Kyra stabbed a green bean with her fork as if it was her subtle way of threatening me.

I watched Carter and Zia exchange coy words, but keeping them tame compared to Sadie and Walt. Seriously, I saw her attempting to kiss him five times since I sat down, each time failing because someone would cough awkwardly. I'm probably going to have to pull the couple to the side, discuss some rules.

It's not like I dislike the idea of them dating. Actually, I'm glad to see the two get along so well. Walt's a great kid, but I'm beyond curious as to how he can stand Sadie's rambunctiousness twenty-four/seven. But in all seriousness, the two should go on a date already and hopefully get whatever hormones out of their system so the others are not seeing snippets every night. And there's the bit about Julius' approval…

I snapped out of my faze when a giant snow ball was thrown across the table and struck Sadie in the face. "Felix!" She stood up now, blue fire staring down the eleven-year-old.

"That's enough you two," Bast immediately jumped before I could. "If you can't get over it, the two of you can duel it out to your heart's content _after_ dinner."

Carter's attention was fixed on his very irritated sister. "Uh, I don't think-"

"I'll referee it," I quickly decided, noting what was bothering Carter. "Can't have any of them turning into murderers just because one likes their tea cold."

Felix seemed frozen, blinking towards me. "Hold on! I don't want to fight her-"

"You are paying big time," Sadie reassured, brushing the remnants of the snowball off of her jacket.

I received a wild jab from Kyra's elbow as I rolled my eyes. Really, there's nothing like the chaotic happenings of the Twenty-First Nome. It barely makes sense, but it sure beats sitting here alone, wondering how everyone else is doing. It's also the quickest way to get your mind off of things in general.

* * *

I watched two feet behind as Bast continued to drag Felix by the arm as Sadie led the way to the gym. Walt decided he would come as audience, probably couldn't think of anything else to do. "Seriously, tea?" I whispered to the teen who smirked.

"Let's just say you missed the worst fights for the week." Walt shoved his hands into his pant pockets as we continued to walk down the hall.

My eyebrows furrowed, glancing at him to see if he was being serious. Unfortunately, his slouched posture and eyes focused on the floor told me he was speaking the truth. "Is there a running bet on how may fights you can all get into behind my back or something?" I asked, earning a laugh from him.

"Yours or Carter's, not sure yet," Walt added. "Jaz had a screaming fest this morning, surprised the two of you didn't hear it."

"Let me guess, Sean?" I made a wild stab, recalling how she hadn't relented to any moves he tried.

Walt raised his right eyebrow as he faced me, "Yeah, how did you guess?"

"While you were making goo-goo eyes on Sadie," he blushed to my noticing, "Jaz was glaring at him while he tried his hand at pick-up lines."

"You pay _way_ too much attention."

I hesitated as the door swung to Bast dragging Felix in despite his protests. "Why are we doing this?"

"Uh, because Sadie and Felix can't get over themselves?" Walt answered swiftly.

"But we're talking an almost fifteen-year-old wanting to vent about ice tea by fighting an eleven-year-old," I explained.

He didn't seem like he caught my point, probably due to the fact this is what the Twenty-First Nome represents to him, insane and pointless fights. And to think, this Nome once held a very regal reputation. I decided to shrug it off; lingering on the past has just proven to drive me sluggish.

I held the door open and gestured him in. Bast was doing her best to keep Sadie from tearing at him already. Seriously, when has she been the type to lose her temper so easily? Is Kyra influencing this type of behavior?

Bast shot me a thankful look. "Alright kittens, listen to kitty, he's going to set up some rules before you can even think about landing a harmful finger on the other."

I almost forgot about the nickname, deciding I'd rather not draw attention to it as I took a step forward. Sadie and Felix's eyes stayed on me, allowing Bast to step out from between the two, making a quick getaway. "I want you two to know that this is the most ridiculous thing I've heard anyone get so agitated over," I started firstly, "and I won't be tolerating you fighting each other. In fact," I waved my hands towards the two fighting shabtis I posted on each side of the door, "you'll just have to take your frustration out on a shabti instead."

Felix immediately went into complaint, "I hate these-"

"What the Thoth are those things?" Sadie demanded as she pulled her staff and wand out.

I crossed my arms as they awaited my orders after moving from their posts, "Sadie, they're shabtis."

"Obviously not retrieval shabtis," she continued, a hint of panic in her tone.

"No, I don't think there is anything they would need to retrieve in a gym. _These_ are fighting shabtis, kind of similar to warrior shabtis but a little tweaked. They start off easy, so you shouldn't worry about the first hit. But they adapt."

"Uh, adapt?" Sadie finally directed her eyes to me.

"They could retrieve a towel, or a ball lodged in the ceiling!" Felix quickly listed.

"Sadie, you can defeat them, but they reform and get stronger to each type of magic you use," Walt answered for me.

"How is _that_ safe?" Sadie demanded of me again, which I just rolled my eyes.

"Don't you know? They obey him, he's like their master," Felix explained.

"Statuary magician, but I don't see the need to brag about it either," I clarified.

"Okay, and why do I just _now_ know about this?" Sadie wondered, blinking at me as if she was just getting to know a stranger.

"If I remember correctly, both you and Carter were attempting to resurrect Ra while I handed a crash course on fighting in almost every magic field. What did you think my talent was in? You've been feeding my favorite shabti for almost two years now-"

"It's kind of goes in hand with Carter not knowing you were next in line for Chief Lector," Walt reminded.

"Sorry that I apparently missed that important detail," Sadie snapped.

"So you assumed that any magician has a Duat safe shabti?" I asked, recalling our past few discussions where she's tried her best to get me to hand information on Caroline.

She gave a nervous laugh. "Can I admit I was a little surprised to seeing one that can break into a Duat locker like that?"

I smiled in response. "Okay, I'll let it slide, but only because we're related."

"Awe, thanks Uncle Amos, I feel privileged," Sadie rolled her eyes.

"Glad to hear it," I snapped my fingers, the shabtis shifting behind me. "So Sadie, I suggest you use more basic magic to start, or else you'll wear yourself out."

"Oh, _now_ you offer that bit of advice?" Felix complained, standing apparently in the middle of five penguins.

I rolled my eyes, seeing he has still stuck to his agenda to 'follow the God of Ice'. "I'll stop them once I see you're visibly tired," I reassured as Sadie's grip on her staff tightened. "Prennent facile_._"

Both shabtis responded, approaching Felix and Sadie as the gym floor shook to each step. The penguins followed Felix's orders, taking on Sefu as he limply carried his kopesh. Wamukota pretty much waiting for Sadie to make a hit as his left hand gripped the staff vertically.

Two penguins made the first hit on Sefu, making him dissolve into sand. Sadie observed it and experimented by tapping her wand on Wamukota, intoning 'disintegrate'. She watched him transform into a pile of shabti dust before facing me. "That wasn't even that bad-"

Sefu reformed now, which Sadie jumped as Felix's army of penguins fought alongside him. Unfortunately, the penguins weren't doing much damage now. For safety sake, I managed to cage the birds and move them out of harm's way as Wamukota reformed.

Sadie spoke another divine word to find it didn't do anything. "Okay, this is bloody ridiculous!" She snapped, dogging a smack from her enemy's staff.

I watched as she tried another to find the same results. "Good, that's the point." I shrugged off her glare.

Felix managed to get Sefu to slip on some ice, crumbling into the wall as dust. "Where did they go?" He asked as he took in his army was nowhere to be seen.

"They escaped, don't be so hung up on the penguins," I instructed quickly.

Sadie managed to form a fire at the tip of her staff, setting Wamukota on fire. I shot her a sheepish smile now, "Maybe you shouldn't have done fire so soon."

"What are you talking about?" Sadie wasn't afraid to show how pissed off I made her now. "I'm venting!"

From the clay ashes of Wamukota, a bright blue light suddenly spread over the gym, forcing me to shield my eyes. That's weird, nothing like that has happened before, and I had Julius test them out repeatedly alongside Michel. It lasted for about a minute before dimming.

I unblocked my right arm to my sight, finding the gym empty. Completely empty, none of the three kids in sight, or the two shabtis. "Okay, we can come out now," I quickly decided it was probably some dumb prank Sadie would try to escape.

Nothing responded back. I scanned the gym for anything. I froze as I took in the pedestals that the two shabtis sit on beside the doors were gone as well. There's no way someone could just move them, you would need something strong to pull it away or telekinesis.

**Translation**

**Prennent facile: Take it easy.**


	3. Chapter 3

-Sadie Kane-

Amos observed as I burnt his little shabti buddy before shooting me a nervous smile. "Maybe you shouldn't have done fire so soon."

What is he talking about? I can't apparently hit it with any divine words now. This really isn't funny, and I was getting tempted to smack my uncle instead. "What are you talking about? I'm venting-"

I was quickly interrupted by an explosion of blue light from the annoying left-handed shabti's ashes. I turned away, covering my eyes. What kind of fresh hell is going on now? Do they have some special ability if you melt them? I wouldn't be surprised, Uncle Amos already yanked out a banquet of insane 'little' details as it was.

Once the light let off from trying to burn my eyes, I managed to see it fade into the newly formed shabti. "Bloody annoying, that's what you are," I snarled; quickly go through spells that might bring it down again.

So, this shabti apparently only knows how to swing a staff around. I don't see it as being very helpful if we were to turn to it for defense. Really, the other one is probably the best bet seeing as he has a kopesh the size of Felix.

Speaking of Felix, he was now suddenly in the giant clay man's left hand, hanging upside down as he screamed bloody murder. Avoiding another swing of the staff to my head, I skid across the gym floor towards the other shabti. Apparently our gym floor is in desperate need to be waxed because I only went two feet.

The next thing I knew, I was face to face with a snake. It's an average sized adder though, not something as big as, say the Lord of Chaos. Still scared me that I actually jumped back onto my feet. Then I noticed Walt grip the oversized hilt of the kopesh, disintegrating the shabti into gray dust. Felix ended up getting a bath of ash.

"A little help here?" I yelled out as I ducked to the right, the big staff almost bonked me on the nose.

Felix managed to swim out of the mess as Walt rushed towards me. The snake immediately went to attack the shabti, which just confused it on who its target was. So the staff smacked the snake in the face, earning a vicious hiss as it sank it's fangs into the right ankle of the giant.

Walt gripped the other ankle and gained the same reaction to the death magic at his fingertips. The snake quickly turned back into a staff, which Walt grabbed off the floor before turning to me. "Maybe they can go back if they don't see us." Walt urged for the door, the other shabti starting to reform again.

I looked around to see Uncle Amos was nowhere to be found. Ditched us to his very big and very irritating minions of clay. I pushed Felix out as I looked over my shoulder for a second. The kopesh clay immortal was almost completely reformed, eyes on us as the door slammed closed.

"I think it saw us," I whispered to Walt as Felix crawled away from the door after landing on the floor headfirst to my panicked push.

Walt shook his head, refusing to let my words sink in. "Just keep quiet, it'll go back."

"And how certain are you on that?" I demanded immediately. "And where did my bloody uncle run off to?"

Walt was about to speak when the wall suddenly blasted at us, as if the twins kicked the wall down just to find us. "Run," I grabbed Felix by the left arm to get him to stand as we made a mad dash down the hall.

These giant clay men barely fit in the hall, and they went about tearing apart the walls in hopes they could catch up to us. "Isn't there some word we can use to get them to stop?" I screamed over the raucous behind us.

"No, it's kind of like Doughboy; they only listen to one person," Walt yelled back, narrowly missing running into a small statue of Ra.

"Then where the hell did Uncle Amos run off to?" I snapped, really contemplating punching his smug face in.

"_What_ are you two doing?" Carter suddenly approached us, outrage in his eyes as Zia stood against the wall, shooting us a curious look.

"Love to chat, got two very insistent shabtis chasing us though, bye!" I brushed past him as he gave me a blank look.

"Two wha-What the hell?" See? Even Pharaohs freak out.

"What did you guys do?" Zia asked, apparently getting the message to run with us, Carter following.

"I completely blame this on Amos," I summed up, which wasn't good enough in Zia's glare.

"Are they from the gym?" Carter finally managed to catch up.

"Recognize them do you? Maybe you can talk with them, come to a common understanding that chasing kids down a hallway is _not_ cool?" Carter was now a twin of Zia's with his glare.

Zia abruptly stopped, whipping her staff out as she immediately summoned fire in her fingertips of her free hand. "Uh, Zia," I started as she threw the fireball at the guy with the staff.

We all froze to see the shabti absorb the heat completely, still following us as if nothing had happened. "He's fireproof?" Zia's eyes widened to the thought.

"You can thank me later, come on-" I was stopped short as I ran into a figure a little taller than I.

"Sorry," I looked up to see it wasn't anyone I knew, "uh, random kid."

He didn't like the name; his expression told me so as his brown eyes took me in. "Actual introduction later, yes? You need to come with us or die, your choice."

"Or die?" His eyes narrowed, "Would you mind doing me the honors of telling me who you-"

"No time to talk, get moving!" Carter harshly gripped his right arm as the strange kid took in the occurring scene behind us.

The stairs, we all rushed down them in hopes they'll stop following. Boy, were we wrong or what? The one flight of stairs down to the Great Room was now pretty much rubble thanks to these two shabtis. "Carter, you want to try?" Walt asked.

Carter was quick to whip his kopesh out of the Duat, letting go of the new initiate. "Walt, there _has_ to be something to stop them. He said something that triggered them to attack in the first place-"

"Yeah, but I don't think it was a special code like you're saying," Walt continued as Carter launched at the one I had been fighting.

The boy gave me an observant look in his eyes. I really wasn't in the mood to deal with any judging, especially by a kid wearing linen clothing and a navy cloak, letting his hair just hang to rest on his shoulders. He looked like he popped out of a King Arthur retelling, one where the writer _insisted_ everyone was black. "Whatever Walt, do you remember what he said exactly?"

"Gibberish," Felix announced quickly.

"It was certainly in a different language," Walt confirmed as Carter took on the next one, standing on the clay remnants of the first.

"You're saying we're wasting time trying to figure out how to stop these things?" I snarled, crossing my arms out of irritation.

That's when I noticed the kid pulled a staff out. "Uh, what are you-" I started to scowl as he just ignored me, standing five feet before the reforming shabti that Carter had managed to bring down.

"Hey, pull back," The kid demanded of Carter, which now earned everyone's attention.

Carter ducked the swinging blade as he turned, giving the kid a puzzled look. "Sorry, but I don't think I really trust a novice taking over from here."

That seemed to royally piss this kid off. "Stop fighting!"

Surprisingly, the shabtis responded, taking a knee as they kept their unmoving eyes on the newbie. Carter froze, observing the kopesh shabti was obeying without any fight. Even weirder? The Merlin wannabe was stunned as well, "Uh, return to whence you came?"

They took his question as an order, climbing the destroyed flight of stairs to the gym. "What did you say your name was?" I asked.

"I didn't," the kid's judging eyes landed on me again, a look of disdain in his expression. "And neither have any of you. If you're friends of Kyra's, I suggest you don't touch anything-"

Carter cleared his throat, gaining the new kid's attention. "Welcome to the Twenty-First Nome, I'm Carter. You don't seem like an initiate."

"I used to be, but why should that matter?" The kid snarled.

"Wow, you are gutsy," I stood up in my brother's defense, really starting to hate this kid's stuck-up attitude.

"No, just irritable," he brushed off. "Why are you here? _Where_ did those shabti come from?"

"The gym, and we're here for the same reason that you are," Walt continued. "You _are_ blood of the pharaohs, right?"

The kid tensed, taking us in again. "Why does it matter what my bloodline is?" He snapped, getting defensive.

"Because your family probably has important ties with the Gods," Bast interrupted. "Hello, I'm Bast, protector of families and warrior of Ra's."

"Who are all of you?" The kid suddenly yelled, taking a step back as he looked prepared to fight Bast.

All six of us blinked at him. "Um, will you allow me to explain?" Zia offered peacefully.

"Do you people even know where _you_ are?" He immediately snapped, distress written in his expression, "You just attempted to destroy the family mansion of the noble Kane family!"

"Destroy?" Bast turned to me for answers.

"And you've befriended a Goddess? The Chief Lector will hear of this!" Wow, this kid has a wild temper.

"Um, he knows," Carter informed him quickly.

"Two very big, very mean shabti followed us down here." I pointed to the staircase to give an example of the destruction for Bast's question.

I've decided I'm calling him Merlin. So, Merlin took us in as if calculating the pros and cons of fighting us. "How about we just calm down?" Walt suggested. "We just survived a near death experience, let's make some hot chocolate and cool off."

Merlin laughed now. "No, all of you are getting out of here. If you don't want me to call my father in, I suggest doing as I say."

"You know, you are _too_ pompous," I snapped, hands tightened around my staff. "You can't kick us out of our home. We run this place, _you_ don't. We're generally accepting of all personality types, but I might have to kick you off the roof of the mansion if you keep it up."

Now he looked extremely confused. "What Nome are you from? Maybe I can redirect you then-"

"_This_ is our Nome," Felix explained.

"What _is_ your name?" Bast asked, shooting the annoying brat with a worried look.

He was still tense towards her, making sure she knew as he thought for a second, "Kaden Anderson."

Bast crossed her arms now, really focusing on him with her sharp golden eyes, which apparently seemed to make him nervous. "Why did those shabti respond to you?" I asked now.

"Uh, maybe they just recognized me as a statuary magician?" He offered, seeming a little lost himself on the details.

"What Nome are you from?" Zia asked next.

"Sixty-Seventh," he answered without hesitation. "Miami."

"Are you here to talk with me then?" Carter wondered.

"Wow, someone thinks he's important," Kaden quickly dissed. "I'm here for a Jabari Kane."

Bast hissed now, looking ready to fight as well. "Jabari is long gone," Kyra's voice spoke up with absolute certainty. "Where did you hear that name?"

"Uh," now he seemed like he was digging for an excuse.

"Oh whatever, you're staying here a night. We'll figure this out tomorrow." I decided, earning a glare from Carter.

"Hey, _I'm_ the Pharaoh here, remember?"

Kaden/Merlin snapped out of his faze. "I'll just head back to my Nome-"

"I'll contact Miami," Kyra reassured. "We have a spare room for you to take. I'll also inform the Chief Lector of your presence so he's not startled."

"Kyra, about that-" Walt started, nervousness creeping into his tone.

"Your name is Kyra?" Kaden looked surprised.

"Yes, Kyra Teal, Nome Leader of the Forty-Sixth Nome, that's in Seattle," she introduced. "And the group of troublemakers is Carter, Sadie, Zia, Walt, and Felix."

Kaden seemed like he relaxed, only a little though. There was a look in his eyes that stated something was wrong, and I don't think I'm going to let him slide without talking about it. "Well Kaden, want to help us fix the Nome?" I asked, deciding the best thing to do is act like everything is normal.


	4. Chapter 4

-Carter Kane-

Why is it that when I'm actually brave enough to kiss Zia, something unexpected happens? Like my sister tearing down the Nome with two shabtis from the gym? Must be a jinx.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure Sadie already gave the rundown of what happened. The first shabti was easy to knock out, but the one carrying an oversized kopesh seemed like my hits were nothing. I was seriously considering turning to Horus for help.

And then the new kid decides he wants to take over? Not cool, Pharaohs are supposed to be the showoffs, right? I'm getting sick of people trying to control the situation just because it appears difficult for me. That's why I froze to the shabti suddenly obeying him. I turned to see he looked just as freaked out by it.

Kaden Anderson, I've never heard of him before. He looked about our age, but his cloak kind of threw me off. Strangely enough, he looked familiar. Both Kyra and Bast gave him weird looks, and he was looking ready to hide if he could get away with it.

"Uh, sure," he finally responded to Sadie.

"Great," she immediately clamped her hand on his left shoulder to earn a jump. "I assume you know the spell already, it's pretty basic."

I swear my sister might be suffering from ADHD. Wasn't she in a foul mood earlier? Maybe it's the fact the shabtis aren't trying to kill anyone now.

"What did you want to tell me, Walt?" Kyra asked, crossing her arms as she waited patiently.

He tensed, waiting until Kaden, Sadie, and Felix were out of earshot. "There was a random blue light that went off in the gym."

I frowned to that, "Where did it come from?"

"One of the shabtis," Walt sounded certain.

Kyra shook her head. "Shabtis can't perform magic; it's the best way to make sure they don't get any ideas."

"You make it sound like there's the possibility," I added.

She gave a small smile. "I'm not the expert on it; you'd have to talk to your uncle. What did this light do?"

Walt grew nervous now. "Amos disappeared once it dimmed down. That's when things got out of control."

Kyra's green eyes hardened. "You sure he didn't just give you the slip? He doesn't look like it, but he's good at sneaking around."

"I don't think he was considering it when he was blocking his eyes like the rest of us," Walt insisted.

Bast grew uncomfortable now, taking a glance at the kid from Miami. "Lady Teal," she spoke up, tone sounding incredibly tense.

"Don't jump into conclusions yet," Kyra instructed quickly. "Carter, Zia, why don't the two of you show him around once this is all cleaned up?"

"No problem," Zia answered for us.

Kyra gestured Bast to leave with her, which Bast hesitated to follow. "Hu, that was weird," I admitted.

"Which part?" Zia asked.

"All of it."

"Seemed kind of normal to me," Zia shrugged off. "Except when he mentioned Jabari."

I almost forgot about that. Another Kane? Maybe it's a distant cousin. Seriously, wouldn't be surprised to learn that seeing how many relatives have abruptly revealed themselves. And Kyra's response to the name didn't sit well either. That might have to be something I ask Uncle Amos once he decides to appear.

"Know him?" I asked her now.

"It sounds familiar," Zia admitted. "I'm more interested in why we have a surprise visitor from Miami."

Walt was still nervous as I looked over to see Sadie and Kaden approaching us, the stairs looking brand new as Felix ran up them before anything else happens. "Looks like Merlin is telling the truth about not being new," Sadie announced.

Merlin, Sadie? From what I've gathered on the old wizard, he has an overgrown beard. This guy has to be our age, and he's an inch taller than I. The only thing that might be relatively close is perhaps the cloak. The way my sister's mind works…

"So, since you're spending the night here, let us give you a tour of the place." I gestured for him to follow.

* * *

"…and this will be your room for the night." Zia pointed to the door to the end of the hall on the fifth floor.

Kaden didn't really pay much attention to our tour; he was more focused on the walls and the initiates running around us. Maybe he wasn't thinking about memorizing it seeing as he's from a different Nome. "So, you're from Miami?" I asked now, seeing as our tour ended.

"Yes," he answered quickly.

"And you're looking for a Jabari Kane?" I continued, wondering if maybe he can give me some details on the guy.

"Um, yeah… Know him?" Kaden still seemed uneasy, and I was starting to feel like I should be to.

"No, just curious as to what would bring you here. Was it the last name that made you think he'd be here?" I asked next.

Kaden rolled his eyes now. "No, just me being an idiot…" He muttered under his breath. "Hey, do you two know _anyone_ with the name of Kane?"

"Uh, yeah," Zia started to laugh a bit. "Carter and Sadie, their Julius Kane's kids. And there's Amos, you'll meet him if he ever decides to show up."

Kaden's eyes widened, which I decided to shoot him a confused look. "You can't tell me you didn't know who I am."

He finally blinked, shooting me a nervous smile in reply. "Sorry, just, um…" His focus drifted for a moment.

"Are you okay?" I finally asked, getting a little more direct.

"Yes, I'm totally fine, honestly. Don't even worry about me," Kaden snapped out of it has he waved my words off. "I know this is probably going to sound dumb, but could you remind me what year it is?"

Now both Zia and I gave him a weird look, which he immediately shied from in nervousness. "Never mind, I figured it out."

"You sure?" I continued, not really buying it.

"Yup, I'm sorted out, no more confusion in this skull." He pointed to his head as he stated this. "So, thanks for the tour, I'm going to head to bed."

I crossed my arms as the extra room's door closed, "I don't trust this kid."

"Was it the fact that everything anyone says earns a flinch from him?" Zia asked, gesturing me to follow her back down the hall.

"I didn't notice that," I shot her an amused look.

Zia gave me a look of distress now, which made my smile die quickly. "Carter, promise me you won't trust him with anything."

"Wow, tense are we?" I teased.

"He might be a spy," Zia continued.

"I think you're getting a little jumpy-"

"Carter, you can't tell me it wasn't weird that he managed to hand those shabtis orders! Do you know how shabtis work?" Zia snapped, stopping in the hall as I did. "They only ever have _one_ master. Sadie was screaming about how it was Amos' fault and that he gave them orders in the first place. They don't just _stop_ to any statuary magician, especially if they've been crafted by a skilled magician like your uncle."

"Wait, Amos is statuary?" I blinked out of surprise.

Zia's eyes narrowed now. "He _still_ hasn't given you two a history lesson on your family, has he?"

"Uh, what does that have to do with-"

"The Kane family is known for combat magic. Your uncle happens to be a major exception. Usually when that occurs in a family as proud as yours, the 'misfit' is unheard of, even disowned," Zia quickly explained. "That's not the point. The point is all of the shabtis here are your uncle's. And this complete stranger managed to override the Chief Lector's skill."

I tried to piece out what she was saying, but it kind of jumbled up. "My family is proud? Of what, being troublemakers?"

Zia's right eyebrow rose a little. "I guess that would be the new thing, wouldn't it? Anyways, some families are known for being talented in certain magic skills. It depends mainly on bloodlines. The Kanes, as you know, are descendants of Narmer. You and Narmer have a few things in common, more actually than the rest of the Kane family can say."

"Annoying little sisters?"

Zia glared now, "Try again, Carter. More along the lines of Gods this time."

"Horus?" She pretty much gave me the answer.

"And Bingo was his name," Zia confirmed.

"Uh, Zia? Are you learning 'American slang' from Felix by any chance?" I gave her a nervous laugh as she blinked.

"I have to learn from somewhere!" She snapped. "Back on topic, because your ancestor hosted Horus, your family has been representing that fact to prove that you're the 'best' at combat magic. I don't know the details fully; you'd have to ask Amos. If I remember correctly, your family has had a long reputation of being 'top dogs' of the skill, and has been fighting to keep that reputation from the others that state the same thing."

"So, you're saying the Kane family used to be built of combat magicians that fought other combat families and are proud of the fact?"

Zia nodded as we approached the stairs. "So, hold on, you mentioned misfits."

"That's a rather tender topic, and I suggest you don't even dare to mention it to your uncle," Zia suggested immediately. "Well, I haven't heard of anyone saying it around him, it's actually what I've heard from the older magicians. I mentioned it once towards Desjardins, well, that ended badly."

"He probably wondered why you even brought the name up-"

Zia abruptly laughed, which stopped me short as I waited to hear what was so funny. "I guess the two of you really are out of the loop. Still think Desjardins abhorred your family?"

"No, I knew he just loved us so much so that he would willingly hug us with a knife." I rolled my eyes as Zia shook her head.

"Still seeing things in black and white," she huffed out of annoyance. "A while before _we_ met, Iskandar had mentioned Julius attempting to communicate with Amos after his jazz gigs. Desjardins went, what's the best way to put this, protective? I asked the Chief Lector why that was; it wasn't how he usually reacted. Something about Michel wanting to adopt Amos from the family, not liking his treatment."

"Huh," my mind went blank; I really couldn't see the old magician care for anyone.

"They were close, a trio squadron under the Chief Lector for many years," Zia continued, knowing well enough that I couldn't see it happening at all.

"It couldn't have been that bad, Amos is a sound mind," I reassured.

She just stared at me as we reached the third flight of stairs. "Funny, you were willing to find anything to match Michel's personality to Set, but haven't obviously bothered to see why he chose your uncle instead."

My eyes widened a little; I hadn't really looked into it. I was more focused on the hurt from seeing him in such bad shape when we had found out. On the second floor, Alyssa joined us on the stairs. "What's up?" She asked quickly.

"Nearly destroyed the mansion again," I answered. "Wait, can't you control shabtis?"

"Uh, not really. I can give them instructions, but it's a matter of who made the shabti in the first place. Why?"

"Oh, nothing of mere importance," I brushed off as Alyssa gave Zia a curious look.

"Actually, Sadie told me you once stopped one of Amos' shabtis from killing her," Zia brought up. "Probably could have used your help half an hour ago."

"Hmm, but Amos' shabtis are more on the level of obeying anyone from Brooklyn House. Or at least that's what he's been shooting for," Alyssa added on. "Take Philip for example, anyone can take him along and he'll respond to anything you ask of him."

"Uh, but Zia just said that-"

Zia blinked now, "That takes an incredible amount of studying to even do."

Alyssa shrugged. "That's what he said; I'm not going to judge him on it."

Alyssa continued down the stairs as Zia stopped mid-step. I stopped to see her slowly come back from her faze. "He is the Chief Lector, give him some credit."

She smiled with a nod, finishing the step finally. "So, when do you think Walt will ask your sister out?"

"Uh, it's kind of difficult for me to see him as a brother-in-law. And you know, I'm worried about her. Is she chasing him because of Anubis or because of Walt? Does _she_ even know?" I started to rant.

"You don't think Sadie has her priorities sorted out?" Zia wondered.

"This is Sadie; her mind wanders quicker than a race horse at the starting gate."

Zia abruptly laughed. "What if I don't know about dating you?" She started to tease.

I took the last step, hand extended towards her for the last two. "Well, then, I guess we are all in a lost haze thanks to Hathor, are we not?"

She took my hand and stepped down, quickly landing a kiss on my lips, pulling back to smile. "I don't consider it a lost haze. More like a comforting sea to swim in."

"The kind you want to stay in because getting out is colder than staying?" I asked, a grin playing on my lips as she rolled her eyes, taking a step back.

"I haven't tested it out yet; let me enjoy relaxing in it first." She let go of my hand. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, Pharaoh. Hopefully the Chief Lector will decide to appear."

"Well, we could always try something scandalous and see if he'll pop out before it goes down." I suggested softly, earning an amazed laugh from Zia.

"Now, why would your uncle want to even be _around_ if we do that? He'd probably close off a ten foot perimeter and ensure none of the initiates get the idea of sneaking in."

I laughed to that, noting he probably would do that. "Alright, but let's make it Plan C then."

"As you command, Pharaoh," she smiled slyly as she left for the veranda, making sure everything was cleaned up.


	5. Chapter 5

-Amos Kane-

I barely managed to escape Brooklyn House. First off, when I left the gym I noticed a great number of things that were different, yet familiar. It wasn't anything big, except for the shabtis that I had posted around the house being gone. As I searched the house, his familiar voice made me jump.

"Kyra, maybe he doesn't want his image of 'Romeo and Jillian destroyed by a bunch of high schoolers?" His annoyed tone echoed down the hall from the first set of rooms on the second floor.

A large smack followed, and I decided to keep hidden as I noted they were probably headed this way. I know it's pretty ridiculous, but I caught myself hiding behind a large statue of Horus posted in the hallway. "For the record, _Caesar_, it's Juliet, _not_ Jillian," Kyra's voice responded in the same tone.

I caught my breath as they came into view, bantering about the name of the popular Shakespearian play. Julius is wearing a deep blue suit, adjusting the jacket for it was getting tight. It was a common occurrence for him; he always bought a new suit and when he actually had the chance to wear it, it appeared he got too big for it.

And Kyra was wearing a yellow sundress with white pumps, swinging around a small black bag. "Amos, you better be ready. Or else Kyra's going to beat you with her little black bag of death," Julius announced as they walked past the statue, not even sensing me nearby.

I waited a moment, hearing their voices echoing around the halls, Julius every so often letting out complaints about her swatting him with the bag. "What, buff combat magician can't handle a little bag?"

"Shut up Kyra!"

As you can imagine, I snuck out as soon as I could, head spinning as I stepped out onto the street just before the warehouse. I felt like I was going to get sick, but I pressured myself to walk it off, heading upriver. "What is going on?" I muttered to myself, starting to equal out my balance finally as other pedestrians shot me with glares.

Julius is a recycled host for Osiris; his skin is even tinted blue. He looked maybe like he was younger than twenty back there. And Kyra? She completely dropped wearing dresses when she was fifteen.

I stopped to lean against a street light, nausea threatening to black out my vision. What happened? There wasn't anything that was different that occurred before that light took over the gym.

"You alright Sir?" A gruff voice asked.

I looked up to see a police officer taking me in. "Yeah, just feeling sick," I excused quickly, hoping he'd move on.

"Running from something?" He continued to ask.

I forced myself to straighten my posture, facing the officer as his eyes took in my clothing. Shoot, I probably look extremely odd in a same shade red suit. "No, just not feeling too great," I brushed off, hoping he'd leave it at that.

Nope, he didn't even make a motion to consider leaving me alone, "What part are you from?"

"I'm from this neighborhood," I explained. "Just walking home from work."

"And _where_ do you work?" His blue eyes gave a silent warning.

"What are you getting at here?" I finally snapped, irritated that I even have to speak to him.

"We've been have some massive movement from gangs around here recently."

"So you immediately take a look at me and decide I might be a suspect?" I froze as I took in I just yelled at a NYPD official.

His eyes narrowed, "I don't appreciate your tone."

"I apologize Sir; I'm just really out of it-"

He made a movement towards his holster, making me fully aware that he's armed. "You going to answer or should I just take you into custody."

"That's abuse of power," I immediately defended. "You do that, and I'll make sure you lose your badge."

Really could use Julius right about now, he was always able to get out of these confrontations. Maybe that just comes with experience. I always avoided them as much as possible, talking to them always made me nervous. Yeah, I know, magician afraid of police, but it happens.

He gave an innocent smile now, attempting a different approach. "What's your name?"

Shit, I'll have to come up with something new. If what I think has happened, 'Amos Kane' is roughly fourteen. And I'm not about use the pathetic code name Julius came up with twenty-years ago. "Sebastian Dredger," I quickly used the first name of maybe the closest friend I've had outside of family.

"You related to a _Jason_ Dredger?" He wondered.

A look in his eyes spoke of him being a known suspect. "No, sorry," I quickly replied.

He bit his lower lip, as if searching for anything else he could possibly throw to get me to 'slip up'. "Alright, I'll be seeing you around then, _Sebastian_."

"Hmm, you have a nice evening too." I restrained my tone to sound sincere as he walked into the crowd of pedestrians.

Thankfully I was just left with the occasional huff or glare from a judging pedestrian as I managed to clear my head. I can't get hung up about how this happened yet, just need to find a solution. First need to get out these clothes, it's far too flashy and red is a horrible to color to wander around in as a magician. Then maybe see about breaking into the Twenty-First Nome, see what I can dig up to help solve this.


	6. Chapter 6

-Sadie Kane-

An hour passed and I couldn't sleep. Yeah, I'm daydreaming about Walt's smile again. Trust me; it's more entertaining than Carter's rants. Anyways, I still found myself wide awake and finally sat up from the bed. Maybe I can slip into his room, see if he's awake too.

And so that's why I'm in the hallway, being my super amazing self by sneaking around Brooklyn House. But apparently, I wasn't the only one. In fact, I spied another figure with the same idea, except he was continuing down the second floor's hallway rather than heading to the stairs.

_Julian, I'm so catching you this time!_ I smirked at myself as a change of direction was settled in.

For weeks, pranks have been randomly pulled on different members of the Nome every morning. And for weeks, I've been trying to catch him in the act. Why do I instantly peg Julian? For some reason he just seems like the type to do something of the sort. And who else would dare to swarm my private bathtub with roaches? We all know Carter wouldn't.

This time, the little terror stopped at Uncle Amos' door, peering around before murmuring at it, unlocking the door. Okay, planning to prank your peers is one thing, but the Chief Lector? I don't know, but if I were my uncle, I would probably swat the pest. Pharaoh is on a different level, anyone give my brother a good girly scream is rewarded my friendship.

And the moron left the door open, so I slowly made my way in. From the entryway, I saw him rabidly searching the room, mainly the desk. "Shit, where did it go?" I caught him curse under his breath, furiously moving the chair to look under the desk.

I took two more steps in, watching him continue to search for something. "So, what's on the agenda?" I asked.

He jumped, loudly banging the back of his skull against the wooden top of the desk. "Oww," he whined as he finally got out, making sure he didn't hit anything else.

"You know, I get that he can be a hard ass at times, but to prank the Chief Lector is just cruel," I started to lecture.

He had his right hand to the back of his head as he faced me, still sitting on the floor. "Uh, I can totally explain-"

I finally switched the light on, blankly taking in the new addition to Brooklyn House rubbing the back of his head. "Well then, this is certainly not a prank in the making," I stated quickly, crossing my arms as he shot me a nervous smile, finally dropping his hand. "Booby trap my uncle's room then? Who sent you?"

He just stared at me for a moment. "Wow, you have quite the imagination," he finally spoke after a minute. "I'm just looking for something-"

"For who?" My eyes narrowed, hoping he'll get the message that I'm not afraid to melt him into the crimson carpet.

Kaden's smile faded as he sighed. "I guess there really is no way of lying about this," he noted quickly. "I'm looking for a leather bound book."

My right eyebrow rose. "You're not going to find it in here," I informed the fool. "You can fulfill your hopes and dreams with Cleo tomorrow morning in the library though."

His brown eyes lit up to the thought, "Thanks!"

I shot the kid with a puzzled look as he managed to stand up with the help of the chair. "You're acting like you didn't know books would be there," I snorted to the thought.

Kaden gave me a nervous smile in reply. "Well, sometimes I have my duh moments."

"And what made you think my uncle would have this book?" I continued to pry, refusing to let him escape the room.

"I…" His eyes darted around the room as if some answer would pop out for him.

"Morning Sadie, I didn't know you to be an early bird," Julian's voice sounded from behind me. "What are you doing?"

I immediately turned to scowl at the combat magician. "Catching _two_ magicians trying to sneak around the House."

He grinned to the thought, peering over me to shoot Kaden a peace sign. "And I assume you _weren't_ doing the same, right?" Julian continued. "Quick reminder Sadie, Walt's room in on the fourth floor-"

I immediately smacked him upside the head. "Well now my plans have been dashed thanks to the two of you. So I'll be escorting you to your rooms and dealing punishments later."

Julian just rolled his eyes, "Alright, prank-ya later." He headed down the hall despite my fuming.

Silence as I watched the combat magician disappear. So much for escorting, but at least he was heading back to his room. Kaden cleared his throat as I turned to face him again. "Sorry if I seem a bit judgmental, but you _really_ don't present yourself as much of an authority figure." He pointed his index to my newly dyed blue streak in my hair.

"What is _that_ supposed to mean?" I snapped, doing my best death glare.

He just laughed, bringing his hand to his side. "Nothing, sorry Sadie."

I sighed; giving up on the look seeing as it apparently has no affect. "Just go to bed, I'll deal with you after breakfast," I dismissed, letting him into the hallway. "And don't think for a second that I'll be lenient. _Especially_ since you dissed my hair style!" I watched the kid head back up the stairs before closing my uncle's room again; making sure it's locked better this time.

* * *

For breakfast, we had a surprise visitor drop by. A very _big_ surprise that came in the form of a Caucasian with short black hair and soft blue eyes standing a little shorter than our Uncle Amos; San Francisco Nome leader, Sebastian Kurtz.. Carter stood up immediately once Kyra announced his presence in the veranda. They shook hands, and I'll admit I didn't feel threatened by him.

"I see your Chief Lector is somewhere else?" Sebastian continued.

"Yes, Amos is running around," Carter replied quickly. "May I ask what summons you here?"

"Your uncle believes it would be best if I replace him at the demigod meetings. Best to have all borders discussed, not just Greek and Egyptian. And he said something about not trusting himself to represent San Francisco well enough. I _was_ hoping I could talk with him," Kurtz bowed his head a little towards me in respect, "but I see he is still notorious for giving the slip."

Kyra smirked in response. "Since you're here, might as well join us. Who knows, he might show up."

Sebastian now turned to his fellow Nome Leader. "I don't want to intrude more than I have already-"

She immediately rolled her eyes, leaning towards me, "I'm not that horrible in the morning, am I?"

I smirked to the question. "I think we have the same problem Kyra, we're not morning people."

Carter insisted, so Kurtz stayed for breakfast. Then came the procession of Brooklyn kids, yawning and just getting started on annoying each other. Then came a horrible scream from within the Great Room. "Julian!" Jaz's voice rang for a second morning.

Julian immediately started to laugh, and I stood up to lecture him when we froze to her finally appearing. And trust me; it was hard to keep myself mad. Standing with fists clenched, eyes stuck on Julian, was Jaz holding what once was a white towel. Now it was tainted with splotches of green.

My eyes followed up from the towel to find the source. Her hair was no longer blonde; rather it was strands of neon green. "Heya Jaz, you do something new with your hair?" Sean started.

She bit her lower lip, tossing him the towel as he blinked at her for a second. "Fine, I'll cope," She spoke bitterly. "But I will get you back; you'll wish you've never thought of the color green!"

She stormed past Kaden, who looked like he didn't get any sleep and quickly woke up to the sight of her hair. He looked ready to follow her even, but somehow told himself not to and instead followed the routine of the initiates. They come in, get their food from the buffet table, and promptly sit down and eat, the basics. Julian managed to get the new kid to sit next to him and Alyssa.

Sebastian suddenly chuckled after a moment of shock passed over and started talking up my brother. He seems nice, but somehow I get the feeling he's just sucking up for extra points with the Pharaoh. "Hey Kyra, did you get the chance to call Miami?" I asked now, still edgy about Anderson.

Kyra's mug of coffee lowered back to the table, swished the coffee once in her mouth before harshly swallowing. "I believe that is none of your concern, Sadie."

I blinked at her once, shocked by the sudden change of tone. She's been more than happy to spill everything onto us, sometimes annoying Uncle Amos. I took a bite of lemon poppy seed muffin and chewed on that for a bit to see she didn't plan to elaborate for me. "Why the change in attitude?" I asked once I swallowed the food down.

She sighed, annoyance crossing her. "Sadie, you should know that not everything is your concern. You can let this slide; it doesn't involve you anyways-"

"He was rummaging through Amos' desk earlier this morning." My eyes challenged her to differ with me on the matter.

Her green eyes took me in again, as if trying to read the truth in my words. Then sighed, letting her eyes relax. "If you _must_ know, Melissa, that's the Nome leader, said that she doesn't know him."

My eyes instantly darted to Kaden further down the table. But to no surprise, he was being distracted from Julian yapping his mouth about something, probably giving him the basics on his prank ideas. "So he's a liar," I finalized for myself.

Kyra muttered a few words under her breath that I couldn't make out. "Don't be quick to judge, Sadie. As a Nome leader myself, I know I don't know everyone in Seattle. Kaden is roughly fifteen, so he probably blends with the rest of the teenagers in Miami."

I took another bite, my eyes still stuck on him as he gave a fake smile that read only annoyance to his situation. Julian continued yapping anyways. There is something seriously wrong with this guy, how can everyone else be blind about it?


	7. Chapter 7

**I mistakenly posted up only half of this chapter a few days ago. *smacks self on the hand* I added the part that was missing this time! So please read. I'm really sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you!**

-Amos Kane-

I paused, taking in the warehouse again. It's roughly three in the morning, meaning the house is in deep slumber. I know this only because I've had way too many nights of just staring at the ceiling.

I make sure for the tenth time that I have my staff and wand. My gaze then took in the black cloak, something that I was telling myself to get used to. No more red, this is the best time to ditch the damned color and move forward.

This is completely idiotic. I took in the front door again, a sense of complete dread seeping slowly through me. I'll mess up and trigger a trap.

My right hand gripped my wand harshly as I took in I don't necessarily have a choice. Whatever happened, Brooklyn House might actually have an answer for me to fix it. Maybe. Or it could be a complete waste of time and therefore foolish.

Evaluating the occupants currently inside, the only problem should be Julius if he wakes up. Kyra may be second. Nadia Kane is a healer, so there won't be a problem with her thankfully. However, I wasn't sure if he was in there. I caught myself hoping he isn't, because Jabari Kane is ten times worse than Julius no matter how hard my brother tries.

I gathered the date from the local newspaper stand that was just outside the thrift store I entered an hour ago. It seems that I went back twenty-two years. My actually birthday is still a week away. Or this is some really messed up dream and I'm just lying unconscious in the gym.

I crept up to the front door, peering up towards a window to see complete darkness. Slowly opening and closing, not making a hint of a sound as I entered slowly. Keeping my breathing even as I made my way to the staircase in the Great Room, I gently placed my footing so as to not make even a creak from a floorboard. The first step I hesitated to put my right foot on, but found it to still be sturdy, earning a smile of approval from me.

So far, nothing to trigger alarm from Brooklyn House. Honestly, when I get home I'll have to make sure my traps are set up against people like me sneaking about. That will probably never happen thanks to everything else taking priority.

Second floor, the hallway was its usual gloom. Taking it as a good sign, I swiftly approached my room. Not hard to find, I've kept the same room for my entire life. And it wasn't hard to break into either. Closing the door quietly behind me, I then took a deep breath, allowing myself to make some noise due to the rooms being soundproof.

Switching the light on, my eyes quickly took in the room. Everything seemed generally normal, with the exception that the closet door is open and the chair isn't in its proper place in front of the desk. Oh, and the lamp's on. And I apparently left a book lying on top of tissue paper on the desk. And the window's open. Now I'm starting to sound a tad OCD.

Though the book did grab my attention, I'm not well known to leave books lying about. Pulling my wand out, I approached warily, moving the chair out of the way entirely. A faint blue aura surrounded it, making me close my eyes and shake my head. It's a trapped book, and I probably opened it anyways. Fantastic Amos, they might as well make you the new Curious George too.

Claiming myself lucky for finding it so quickly and being smart enough to check my room first, I hastily wrapped the book up in the tan tissue paper. Then made the grand discovery to see the paper had burn holes in it. Rolling my eyes out of irritation, I quickly summoned my stash of large plastic bags. Then proceeded to wrap the book gingerly in two of the bags before putting everything into the Duat locker.

Now the next hard part, escaping. Sometimes that's easier said than done, but in this case it should be as easy as it was to get in. Though the urgency powers you to hurry up a little more than getting in, and you tend to make mistakes when you let it take over for just an important second. I had this occur, I rammed into the stair's railing. I could walk off from it, but it proved to be enough to make a loud bang of wood echo through the hall, making me wince.

This was responded by Julius' door opening. Tired eyes taking me in blankly for two seconds. "Uh, what the hell are you?"

Caught off by his question, I cleared my throat nervously and gained eye contact with him. He must be still half asleep, maybe I can make it seem like he's making it all up. "What do I look like?" I replied harshly, extending my arms out of irritation.

"Like an oversized bat," was his exhausted reply shooting after a yawn.

"Looks like someone earned themselves a cookie." I restrained my sarcasm as much as possible.

He blinked a few times, the fog from just waking up starting to lift a little. "Wait; there wasn't anything about cookies being involved."

"Well, now there is. They're awaiting you in your room as we speak." I nodded to the question in his eyes.

He stood there for half a minute before slowly turning and going back in. Though he had left the door open I took advantage of this and rushed down the stairs, not caring about making too much noise now. Though surprisingly I hadn't made much sound from my mad sprint to the door. I paid extra care with the door anyways, making sure it was locked again before leaving, heading upriver.

Exhausted from working with Carter in the first place and then this sudden turn of events, I went to the nearest hotel, finding out it's one of the trashier places. But I wasn't really in the mood to be picky, too tired and just wanted somewhere to rest my head for a few hours; I paid for a night and crashed in the small room given to me.

* * *

She wasn't the same… At least not how the original scene had gone down. Her hair was no longer the soft brown, a taint of red streaked it. Her eyes more the color of fire, amber with crimson. And her voice… His haunting hissing destroyed it as well. Her image has been completely destroyed every night thanks to that snake.

She approached this time, gripping my right wrist. "Stay with me Amosss. Don't you love me anymore?"

I do… But staying meant accepting a higher level of chaos to control my life. And Set did enough destruction. "Why do you have to take her too?" I finally snapped, yanking out of her grip. "You already took her… Why won't you just leave me with what I knew her by?" I caught myself crying, hands shaking.

But the hissing died down along with the tainting red. I looked up to instead find a surprise visitor glaring down at me with disapproval. "Amos Kane, your father didn't believe me when I told him you were born under a tainted sun. I figured I would let it go, but now you have crossed the line."

Still shaken up from the altered version of Caroline, I really wasn't in the mood to discuss the past with Horus either. "How have I supposedly crossed the line? Is it the fact that I'm a statuary rather than combat? We're finally going to smite me over that tiny fact?"

Horus scowled in response. "I think we can both agree on the fact that Jabari was a fool."

I crossed my arms, trying to decide if him visiting was better or worse than the constant nightmare. "However, he still wasn't foolish enough to toy with Chaos as you have."

"Probably because he was a big supporter of yours," I muttered under my breath.

"I would have come to you to offer protection, Kane. Except you became the oldest during which Set warped you," Horus continued. "You've made me break my promise; I now protect Carter and Sadie-"

"Oh, so it's my fault that we find ourselves in this mess?" I rolled my eyes, getting rather annoyed now. "And why do you make the grand assumption that I would want _any_ affiliation with you? Maybe I prefer Set; at least he's straightforward with his motives. What do you gain offering 'protection' to Narmer's decedents?"

"Narmer aided me in defeating Set. We promised from then on that I would protect his family so long as we continue to defeat Set-"

"Ah, so _that's_ where I'm to blame?" I nodded as I digested the info. "And I assume you probably tried to talk with Julius. Why didn't that pull through?"

Horus' eyes, gold and silver, glimmered with hate. "I never did discuss it with him-"

"You're just the type that likes to blame everything on someone else. I should have known, after all I host Set-"

"_Hosted_," Horus squawked quickly. "You must not forget that Set saved you from your trial, Kane."

"Oh, _saved_? You make it sound like I was going to get eaten."

Horus shot a smirk my way, stating that's exactly what he thinks. "You must redeem yourself, perish the thought of chaos magic and rejoin order."

"I think I'll stick to chaos. Thanks for the offer though. Call me weird, but I think I prefer Gods that are more honest than you, Avenger," I turned down without hesitation.

"Your own mind is a chaotic sea that you're drowning in, Amos," Horus tone turned deadly. "He's even warped you into believing his speaks the truth? Set never has and never will, Kane."

"Is there a chance I _can_ communicate with Set from the same time frame as you?" I decided to speak up.

Yeah, he turned violent to my words. Eyes took me in like I am a worm. "No, you cannot. That's why I am here, you need assistance. The only one willing to aid you is me."

"Wow, aren't you generous?" I rolled my eyes. "_This_ is your way of getting me to accept your path? I bet Sobek would like to help if I handed myself over like a rag doll too."

"You dare to test me?" His muscles rippled in tension, as if it was the only way he was restraining himself from smiting me now.

"Horus, if I was to pick a loyal Ma'at God, it would only be Thoth," I explained. "First off, I don't like your attitude of destroying things just because they go against you. Also, you should consider the very fact that Set hadn't tried to kill Carter after the Red Pyramid Incident. So just pipe it the fuck down, God of Birds."

"You disgrace your family with your very tone Kane."

"I've been a disgrace to the Kanes ever since I found my talents lying in statuary," I reminded swiftly, crossing my arms out of agitation. "Give up already, there wasn't a chance I was going to accept your terms in the first place."

Horus took me in again. "And how do you plan to get out of the current mess you find yourself in, _Chief Lector_?"

"I have my ways, Horus. I don't need a God's assistance, especially any from you," I brushed off.

He smirked in reply, "You'll wish you've never said those words."


	8. Chapter 8

**If you don't know yet, I messed up when posting up chapter seven. I only put up half of the chapter, but I fixed it. So please read before you get any further. Thank you for reading! Please review, tell me what you think.**

-Carter Kane-

Magic 101 was kind of a sour class this morning. It wasn't helped by the fact that a supposed friend of Uncle Amos was observing. And he didn't do anything but scan the gym from the corner he kept himself in. There were times that I forgot he was even still there.

Today, I just made Julian and Sean duel. Well, let's just say that after Julian getting attacked by a ball of water and Sean left standing with a few bruises, they called it a tie. "Alright, let's just wrap this class up," I spoke up, not really in the mood for anything magical either. "Maybe the entire Nome should get a vacation," I muttered quickly to myself as the initiates started to disband from the gym.

"That's a rather big dream, Kane," Kurtz added as he slowly approached from the corner. "So, you teach this class and then look over blueprints the rest of the day?"

"Yep, used to make this class into three different groups, but I can't catch up with everything going on," I explained, shifting the broken kopesh Julian left behind from the duel.

"You have quite a bit to juggle as a sixteen-year-old," Sebastian continued. "I think my only priority back then was to make sure snakes didn't try to attack me when I attempted to charm them."

My eyebrows rose as I looked up from the sword, "You're an animal charmer?"

He nodded once. "It's nothing big though, it's kind of considered a useless talent-"

My eyes hardened to that, making him stop and chuckle, brushing his right hand against the back of his neck. "Did I cross a line, Pharaoh?"

"I think every talent has its perks, Kurtz. To dismiss one is to dismiss magic in general." I informed dryly, placing my hand on the shattered blade, "Hi-nehm."

Once the blue light dimmed down, I took the kopesh by the hilt and observed the mended blade, finding it to have left no marks of where it was split earlier. "Then pardon my words," Sebastian bowed a little in respect. "My generation is accustomed to certain talents being more worthy of time than others."

I waved it off, which he straightened his back slowly. I slashed the sword in the air, testing the durability of the fix, finding it was perfect mending. "Well, I think we'll change that rather quickly," I continued, lowering the sword as I faced him again.

A small smile of acknowledgement. "You uncle speaks highly of you, but I see he was just barely scratching the surface," Kurtz admitted.

"You said you're close friends?" I brought up.

"Yes, still are," Sebastian confirmed. "Though I'll admit it's a strange kind of friendship. To be honest, we rarely talk. We just understand each other pretty well. I, uh, actually came up to him in the first place because I thought he was a victim to bullying. Turns out he was just running around with his brother."

I shot him a weird look as Kurtz nervously laughed. "Your father was well known when we met. I only knew your uncle because we shared a few classes. Not many people actually knew he existed, to be honest. Completely opposite of your father, he was shy of public attention. First thing that comes to mind with a star Statuary magician running around with a Combat magician is bullying. Thankfully Amos just laughed it off and informed me otherwise."

Then remembering what Sebastian had said earlier, I placed the sword in the Duat Locker. "So, I assume we have to discuss a few things on the upcoming meeting."

"Oh yes, however I think we should wait until your uncle shows up. What _is_ he doing?" Kurtz's blue eyes wondered.

"He mentioned us needing a break from blueprints. I think that's what he's doing." I shrugged, then suddenly recalling Walt's worry from the gym incident. "Uh, actually there was something strange that happened."

His eyes stayed on me, waiting for whatever I was going to spill out. To be honest, this guy is kind of getting on my nerves with how he just regards me as above him. Yes, I get it that I am, but I kind of handed a majority of my duties to Amos. Why can't people just treat me like a kid at times? Is it because I'm sixteen?

"Last night, he was refereeing a duel that somehow included shabtis," I started.

"Like them?" Sebastian quickly pointed to _very_ familiar shabtis standing beside the double doors.

"Yeah, them _exactly_." Now I feel stupid for forgetting that they were from here. "Anyways, things got out of hand. A blue light went off from one of them and Amos has been missing since."

The blue eyes hardened, a puzzled look playing on his expression as he thought it over a bit. "I'm pretty certain that he stopped trying to combine magical properties to shabtis after the last twelve times."

"Uh, you mind expanding on that?" I asked.

"Your uncle found out the hard way that shabtis are uncontrollable if you add any kind of magical ability to them. That includes portal making. There was actually one he had tested with me that he figured would be safe seeing as it was just able to control water. Made it in hopes it could fix wells if the need ever occurred. Well, we almost drowned that day if it wasn't for your dad opening the door."

"Oh," was all I managed to speak out, feeling like my eyes wanted to pop out of my head.

"What happened when this light occurred?" Sebastian asked.

"I wasn't there when it went off," I explained, "but we should ask my sister."

"She doesn't seem like the friendly type. I'll hide in the library while you ask-"

"It's _Sadie_; she's not even friendly to her friends!" I rolled my eyes as Sebastian gave a nervous laugh. "And what is with libraries equaling refuge recently?"

He smiled as he gave in, bowing his head in respect. "I mean no disrespect when I state that libraries _are_ a refuge of knowledge and solace-"

"Something making a reference to Thoth probably?"

His smile expanded, "Yes, why wouldn't it be?"

_Maybe because he's more annoyance than help?_ I restrained myself from speaking the words. "Just follow me, maybe we can find Sadie still in the Nome."

* * *

"What _exactly_ are you looking for?" Sadie's voice was pretty easy to pick out from the ruffling of pages in the library.

Walt stopped leading and turned to us. "Have fun, she's in a pretty foul mood," he confirmed what I could already tell from her tone.

"_Sadie_, for the last time this is a library!" Cleo's hushed.

"Yeah, _Sadie_," another voice added to her annoyance as I finally spotted the source, Sebastian still following.

Sadie was glaring holes into the back of Kaden's skull as his fingers quickly glided over the numerous scrolls, not finding whatever he was looking for. And Cleo wasn't having any of Sadie's temper. Actually, she seemed like she was standing there just to tell Sadie to shut it each time she opened her mouth.

"Cleo, just back off a bit will you?" Sadie turned to face her finally.

Cleo's eyes just hardened. "You're lucky I haven't kicked you out," she quickly muttered as Sadie's eyes returned to Kaden, ignoring Cleo's frustration.

"Always respect the librarian, they happen to organize the information you're looking for." Kaden sighed as he gave up, turning to meet my sister's glare. "And Cleo, you do a fantastic job of keeping the library neat. Thank you for putting up with us. I apologize for Lady Kane's disruption."

Both Sadie and Cleo froze, doing a double take on Anderson. Who in the right mind would take shared blame for Sadie's loud mouth other than me? "What did you say your name was again?" Cleo managed to ask, amazement still etched into her expression.

"Kaden," he replied quickly, eyes still glaring down at Sadie as she kept her blue eyes locked on his brown.

"Well, Kaden, you are welcome here anytime. And thank you for your respect." Cleo couldn't help but leave in a much better mood than earlier.

Sadie gave a disgusted huff to Cleo's exit. "So is that the goal? Charm and blind us until you stab us in the back?"

"You're still delirious," Kaden reassured.

Sadie slammed the palms of her hands onto the table between them, still glaring up at him. "I'm onto you, you little brat."

Kaden's right eyebrow rose in reply, crossing his arms over his chest. "I get the feeling that I'm probably older than you. If not physically, it's most certainly mentally."

Sadie snarled in reply. I coughed before she could actually say anything, earning their attention. "Are we interrupting?" I asked, mainly towards my sister as she relaxed a little.

Kaden's expression lightened up quickly, "Not at all."

Sadie cleared her throat. "What he said," she quickly supported.

"Good, so you won't mind if I pull Sadie away for a moment?" I turned to Kaden as I asked this.

"Go ahead; I need the relief from the pounding headache anyways," he brushed off as Sadie shot another glare at him.

I wasn't able to hide my amusement as Sadie gave me the same scowl. "Whatever, this better be good Carter." She finally ditched their conversation, following Sebastian and I into another aisle of bookcases.

"You mind explaining what happened with the blue light incident last night?" I asked, peering around to make sure no one was overhearing.

Sadie immediately crossed her arms, taking in Kurtz again, "Is this why he's here then?"

"No, I just told him about it," I corrected. "Sadie, you're starting to sound extremely paranoid-"

"I am not, just cautious," she quickly stopped me. "Okay, blue light. I burned the shabti and a few seconds later a blue light took over the room. The next thing I know, the damn thing is formed again and Uncle Amos is gone."

Sebastian just blinked a few times at her, as if trying to process her words to make  
sense. "Oh hell Carter, I have other things to take care of!" Sadie immediately turned to me.

"Like harassing Anderson, right?" I sighed as I shook my head. "I don't think he's much of a threat to us, Sadie."

"You _don't_ know!" Sadie's voice started to rise again. "Listen, I caught him breaking into our uncle's room early this morning. Said he was looking for a book. That's supposedly what he's doing right now too, but he has yet to find this 'mystical book'."

Sebastian cleared his throat harshly, pausing our heated argument. "His name's _Kaden_, right?"

"Yeah, you know him?" I asked, Sadie seemed to have the same question.

Sebastian's eyes seemed to get darker as the seconds passed. "Allow me a day of research; I'll see what I can dig up on this blue light."

Just the idea that someone might have answers raised my morale a great deal. "Sure, take as much time as you need."

"Also, you may want to treat Anderson with a little more respect." Kurtz directed towards my sister now.

"Why is that?" Sadie demanded.

"It's a variation of if you want to test your life span to a kid with military-like training or not," Sebastian shrugged off. "I assume he's new, right? When _exactly_ did he show up?"

"Last night," I answered easily.

The older magician took a deep breath. "Okay, let me see what I can find."

"Wait, you didn't-" I stopped to seeing him disappear into another aisle. "Okay, guess we're on our own."

Sadie rolled her eyes, "On whom this mysterious Kaden Anderson is? Yeah, I've been working on that since he showed up."

"Well, I guess Kurtz kind of helped. Kaden has special training, that's a good hint, right?" I peered at a nearby bookcase to find we're standing in the T section. "Look up some records on magician training and find his name."

"Look up Miami's training," Sadie narrowed down. "He said that's where he's from."

I gave my sister a nervous laugh, her blue eyes narrowed. "I can't look up _any_ Nome's training records. Those were stored in the First Nome, and I'm not going to remind you what happened-"

"Lovely," Sadie immediately waved the idea away.

"But maybe we can see if he's interested in any path. See if we can narrow down how much of a threat he is," I offered, earning a smirk from Sadie.

"Now you see why I'm worried? Took you a Nome leader to say 'maybe my little sister is onto something'?"

I rolled my eyes again, "Okay, I'll leave this in your hands seeing as you've already annoyed him. I'll handle the rest of the Nome."

"Wow, a mission for me? Handed by the Pharaoh of a brother? _I_ am honored, Carter," Sadie teased.

"Look, are you willing to do it or not?" I snarled.

"Of course, I've been on it before you handed such an obligation to me." She smiled as she placed her right hand on my left shoulder. "Though you owe me a mission in payment, brother dear. You better kiss Zia by the end of today or else earn yourself a 'talk' from Kyra."

My eyes widened as I took in the level of her threat. "Hold on, you wouldn't-"

"It's won't take much on my end to hint the idea to her," Sadie brushed off. "Deal?"

"Alright, but you better get some dirt on him too or else suffer the same consequence," I swung back.

Amused smile signaling acceptance of the challenge. "Deal, see you at dinner."


	9. Chapter 9

-Jasmine Anderson-

Lunch came, and I was earning brief looks for the dark blue cap hiding the top of my disaster of hair, which I had put into a ponytail after finding no spells I knew could reverse it. But you know what; I wasn't in the mood for any of it now. I used to only think kind things of people. Somehow everything just went south since we restored order after Apophis' escape.

I shot some new burnet initiate the nastiest glare I could summon once I caught her staring at me. She quickly got the hint and pretended to be more interested in what her blonde friend was rambling about. "Can't do this anymore," I mutter to myself as I took my anger out on my baked potato.

"So hey," a blur followed the familiar voice before I could take in that Sean was sitting across from me.

I groaned immediately, shielding my eyes from him. "What could you possibly want this time?"

"I was wondering if you have a long lost brother that just joined the ranks or not," he said before taking a sip of apple juice.

"What are you talking about?" I faced him now, shooting fire at him that he just seemed to brush off.

"You're last name is Anderson, right?"

Big duh, Hathor's victim. "Yeah, so?"

"There's a new guy with the same last name!" He continued ecstatically.

"Sean, let me stop you right now. Do you _know_ how popular the last name, Anderson, is?"

He weighed the question for a small moment. "It's one of the big ones, right? But still, it's weird that he's a magician as well."

I sighed out of irritation. "Sean, before you continue making a mockery of yourself, does the person you're trying to pin as my brother even _look_ like me?"

"Uh no, but it could be like Carter and Sadie." He was just not going to let his ideas be trashed by me today.

Gods, I sound like a complete bitch thinking badly of him. I mean, he's just love-struck and annoying. So why am I struggling to just smile and walk away? Why do I always want to prove him wrong and curse like it might cost my life to do otherwise?

Before I could say anything in response, Zia promptly sat to my right. "Good evening," she shot me a smile as if she knew just from my expression that I'm still in an irritable mood.

"Well, I'm glad to hear it's okay for you." I tried to sound genuinely happy but my tone pretty much destroyed it.

Zia quickly frowned and gently lifted the cap off to see I hadn't succeeded in my endeavor yet. She then went to put it back on but I grabbed it to show I'd rather just have it off. It's not like it's concealing the fact anyways, so why bother? "You seem pretty lively Zia," Sean was hasty to point out.

"I do?" Zia blushed a second after asking. "I figured I'd change things up a bit today. I mean, I'm always hanging around the Kanes, figured I should pick a different group of people to be around for a moment."

"Oh, Carter annoying you?" Sean continued out of interest.

"What? No! If any of them annoy me its Sadie," Zia clarified. "It's just that I hardly know anyone else here. So I chose to sit here for lunch. Besides, Jaz looked like she was plotting to tear your head off at any second."

I rolled my eyes as she leaned towards my right ear. "If it means anything to you, Carter has his annoying moments as well."

Oh great, now she thinks I like him but want to keep him at a distance. I'm not a tease; Sean's just not my type. I do appreciate his compliments at times and the company, but I only see him as a friend. A small scowl formed before I even realized it was there.

"Hey, you're welcome to sit with us any time you want," Sean spoke up; a look in his eyes stating he was interested in whatever was irritating me now. "To be truthful, I kind of figured you as the girl that sticks with just one group."

Zia's eyebrows rose after taking a sip of juice. "You don't even know me, you're assuming a lot."

"I do that, ask Jaz," Sean shrugged off. "So, are you adjusting to our culture yet?"

Zia quickly rolled her eyes, "I think it's safe to say I am. There are a few things that throw me off still, but I've concluded that sometimes it's just best _not_ to ask."

I sucked on my bottom lip. She's probably referring to Sadie's rant on dating customs and pretty much labeling her brother helpless. All Zia did was ask what she should wear for her first lunch date at the mall's food court. I think she's learned her lesson to never ask Sadie anything that contains Carter on the subject.

* * *

I don't know why I even bother showing up to Bast's class. Really, the majority of the time you learn the proper way to take a nap on a hardwood floor. I suppose some tips on the subject would be nice for the next time I spend a night away from the Nome. But _every_ day? Why did Carter and Sadie even allow her to teach a class?

I pried my eyes open once I could hear her purring in her sleep, ensuring she was out with the rest of the class. Sitting up slowly, I scanned the room before proceeding to stand, deciding to ditch. I have more important things to do than close my eyes after lunch.

Entering the hall, I realized I didn't even know what I wanted to do. Though a small level of peace was wanted, so I headed to the library. Seriously, that's the only place you will ever find some sort of quiet in this mansion. Otherwise you could be either entering a room full of vultures or walking into the middle of a duel just across the hall.

Two doors down, I spotted a familiar face heading the other way, seeming as if he was hiding from someone. So, of course I stopped. He didn't notice and instead rammed into me. "I am _so_ sorry," he started immediately, complete apology written in his expression as he helped me from the floor.

"It's okay; I have worse things going for me at the moment," I brushed off as I got back on my feet.

He took in my hair, which just irritated me further. "Oh, _right_, you're the one with the hair problem today," he noted quickly with a hint of nervousness.

"Yes, it's just marvelous," I grumbled. "I'm sorry, but what's your name?"

He smirked for a second. "Seems I've been asked that quite a bit today. The name is Kaden Anderson."

The kid Sean tried to pin as my brother. I took him in again and realized he was the one I brushed past after confronting Julian on his prank. "We have the same last name," I spat out before things could get awkward.

"Oh, really?" His eyes lit up out of amusement. "Common name, hu?"

"Yes, very," I laughed nervously. "So, who are you hiding from?"

He tensed for a second, "That would depend on if you're the type to rat people out."

I rolled my eyes. "That would depend on who you're running from," I continued.

We stood there for I think five seconds before he gave in, "Sadie Kane."

I abruptly laughed, "Let me guess, she's chasing you like a sad puppy?"

His eyes almost bulged out of his head. "What?"

"Don't be shocked, she pretty much falls for any guy that gives her eye contact, I swear," I reassured.

"I don't think that's the situation," he seemed rather disturbed by the thought. "She's just irritating, been breathing down my neck since I got here."

I shot him a puzzled look, taking him in again. He didn't seem like he could trigger such a reaction from her. "You run into her in the hall like you just did to me?" I asked, confused as he sighed.

"Yeah, guess you could call it that." He cleared his throat quickly. "You know of any good hiding places around here? For someone to have at least a two hour break from a rather insane English teenager?"

I felt bad, but I couldn't contain my laughter to his question. "You're kidding right? The mansion is swamped with kids pretty much everywhere. The only chance you have is in your room. Also, Sadie is an American citizen, just was raised by her grandparents."

He crossed his arms, getting a little frustrated now. "I just asked for a little bit of help and you handed me an entire set of information on little details that I already figured out."

My right eyebrow rose, "Okay, you're confusing me."

"Where do you take refuge around here?" He spoke with directness, brown eyes steadily on me. "Or do I have to hide in a cupboard with a six-year-old?"

My right hand went immediately to the wall, bracing myself as I shook my head, trying not to laugh. "Oh hell, just come with me," I finally offered, which his arms loosened before following me to the staircase.

Like I said, the only place for some peace around here is typically the library. But he seemed like he already tried that, so the next best place would be one of the rooms. Even better being a girl's room. So when I opened the door to my room, he froze before his eyes suddenly gazed back at me.

"It's that or you're on your own," I tossed up now.

This was answered by muttering, though the words sounded to be in an entirely different language than the usual English or even Arabic I've self-taught. He hesitated to enter, apparently being fully aware that the room was not random, that it was in fact mine as I locked the door behind us. Now that I took it in, I discovered it probably was odd for a guy to be in such a bright room like this.

The walls are a bubbly blue adorned with lavender curtains, the bed being a matching red with little white designs. The closet door closed, but containing magician clothing, old clothes that I wear for casual days, and my cheerleading uniform. Yeah, I know, why the uniform? But it helps sometimes to remember what normal life was like before getting tossed into the world of Egyptian magic.

"I see you're organized with your room as well," he broke the silence that stood between us for a minute.

I smiled and nodded a little. "Some people use the word clean-freak though."

He smiled back for a second, taking in the room a little more. "You can tell a lot about someone from their room."

I promptly sank into my office chair before the computer desk, noting that he was still observing the room. "You can sit; I don't imagine you'd want to stand like that for two hours."

He faced me again; I could tell he felt uncomfortable. "Honestly, we _just_ met," I rolled my eyes from irritation to the thought. "Consider this a friendly thing, you're _not_ my type."

"I wasn't even thinking along those lines," he defended quickly. "I'm just curious as to _where_ it's safe for me to 'sit'? Don't want to cross any lines; you're kind of the only person I actually like here."

The right corner of my lips lifted a little as I crossed my arms. "Anywhere you find comfortable. I'm not _that_ picky, I just have the standard rules. Like not going through my things without asking, blah blah blah."

He replied with a small nod, taking the bright green recliner tucked in the corner to the left of my desk, having a small bookshelf on the other side. "So," I clasped my hands together as I kept my focus on him, "where are you from?"

A look of panic seemed to pass over him. "Miami, why?"

"I heard you speaking in a different dialog a few minutes ago. Thought you might be from out of country," I explained.

"Oh," he relaxed a little, "I picked up French a year ago."

I nodded in understanding. It actually isn't a bad idea to study different languages, especially when dealing with people from around the world. "Did you receive Carter and Sadie's recordings?" I continued on.

"No," his hands nervously clasped before him too.

"You already know you're a magician then?" I continued on.

He shot me a smile. "Yeah, I'm from the Sixty-Seventh Nome actually."

"Oh, sorry, I kind of assumed you were an initiate," I admitted dryly, noted to slam my forehead into the desk when he's gone.

He waved it off, "I've been getting that a lot too."

Then our conversation pretty much died. I mean, I wanted to continue asking him some of the many questions going through my head, like why Sadie was hounding him down, or why he's here. But he's edgy; his hands fidgeted a little as he returned his gaze to the room, as if trying to remember it.

"Are you considering getting back at Julian?"

I blinked a few times before I realized he had asked me a question now. "Oh, for the Gods-awful hair color job? No, even if I try to come up with something, it'll just not do any justice in the end," I shrugged off.

He sat up a little; a hint of something evil seemed to cross his smile that kind of struck me wrong. "I happen to have an idea, that's if you're willing to aid me of course."

My eyebrows furrowed. "You know, revenge is a poison," I started quickly. "I do find myself slipping up at times, but otherwise I genuinely keep to myself."

Just like that, he had laid back again into the recliner, the evil twinge to his expression gone in a blink of an eye. "It's not like I was plotting to kill him-"

"I get that, but retaliation is what people want when they act that way. Julian is no different." I shook my head as I quickly searched for something to change the subject. "Anyways, what brings you out here? A chance to be annoyed and hide in my room?"

His right eyebrow rose questionably. "You know, might as well clear the air. I happen to have a girlfriend."

I let out a snort from amusement. "And I'm anti-dating. That doesn't stop people from pairing people up anyways."

Five seconds of his hands fidgeting still. "What brought you here?" He decided to turn the question to me first.

A little agitated by his avoidance, I sighed and quickly decided it might be the only way to get him to relax. "Carter and Sadie's recording after the Red Pyramid incident. But these recordings only came to Blood of the Pharaohs thanks to the djed of Osiris. I used to be a lively cheerleader in Nashville before I found out." I shrugged, "Prefer this over cheer-drills to be honest."

He let out a nervous laugh, rubbing the back of his neck with his right hand. "This will sound stupid then, but what is a cheerleader?"

I blinked, a little taken off by that. Unfortunately it was quiet for a minute. "You don't know?"

His right hand met his left again, fidgeting. Just watching his hands made me want to just pry them apart out of annoyance. A visual pet-peeve of mine, people playing with their hands. "Okay, a cheerleader is a member of a 'cheer squad' for a team. You raise motivation by using catchy cheers and gymnastics. Wear outfits to support the team, get the crowd excited for whatever game is going on at the current moment."

He just kind of gave me a blank look. "I'm assuming you're like Zia then," I quickly puzzled out myself. "Haven't been associated with normal life."

"I didn't think it would be too different compared to normal magician life," He admitted dryly.

"That's fine; I'll get you adjusted during your stay," I reassured. "How long _are_ you staying in Brooklyn?"

"A week maybe," he sounded pretty uncertain. "I'm just searching or a book, and then I'll be on my way."

"What book?" I pushed; might as well while he's willing to discuss it.

He tensed before letting out a nervous laugh. "That's the thing, I don't actually know. All I _do_ know is it's addressed to 'Chief Lector' and leather bound."

"Chief Lector Kane?" I tossed out.

His brown eyes lit up. "Just said Chief Lector," he continued, but a hint of suspicion remained in his eyes. "Kane hu? Is it Sadie?"

I shook my head, a little amused by his blindness. "No, Amos Kane."

Silence stuck between us for five minutes. His hands started shaking, gaze averted from mine. "Eh bien, merde_._"

"How do you not know who our current Chief Lector is?" I finally asked, confused by how someone could actually remain blind to the chaos Apophis had tried to inflict.

He stood up from the chair, looking as if weighing leaving or staying. "I get the feeling that you wouldn't understand. Hell, _I'm_ trying to make sense of it." He waved his right hand as if to dismiss the topic, "Thanks for allowing me a few minutes in your room."

I stood up as he closed the door behind him. "Hey, I'm not done with you," I snarled as I opened the door again.

Carter had apparently succeeded in blocking Kaden's escape route. "Jaz, I'm going to need your help too," he suddenly spoke towards me.

"Wait, on what?" I took a step closer, closing the door.

"Don't know, we just have guests currently rampaging the veranda," Carter explained hastily. "Come on."

* * *

**Thank you for R&Rs! Please review and tell me what you think, it really helps!**


	10. Chapter 10

-Kyra Teal (Fourteen-years-old)-

"What do you mean 'he's missing'?" I snapped immediately to Julius' news.

Julius' brown eyes just glared at me, hating that I'm forcing him to explain. "He's not even in New York, Kyra." His fists tightened, "I even did that little tracker thing Desjardins taught us."

"Maybe you did it wrong?" I offered quickly.

"I've practiced the hell out of it so I wouldn't screw it up," Julius defended. "Unless you think you can prove me wrong?" His tone challenged.

It's not like we haven't fought before, combat magicians love to fight. It's our way of training after all. Something Cousin Amos doesn't get, and hates witnessing us duel as much as we used to around him. Now we just keep it on the down low, mainly because we got tired of hearing him scream profanities at us. I'm just not in the mood to take him up on this challenge though, worry for the other cousin took priority.

"Okay, but this isn't the first time he's left without a warning," I reminded.

That is not something he can deny. The last time he gave his family the slip was a year ago. He didn't reappear until two days later, stating that he'd preferred to 'envelope his mind in French than put up with our stare downs'. Aunt Nadia immediately brushed it off, not questioning anything and even managed to hand him an escape from Julius' and my many questions.

Julius muttered a few curses in reply. "Kyra, if I tell you something, will you promise not to tell our mother?"

Curiosity struck me hard, "Must be big if you don't want Aunt Nadia to know."

"It would freak the hell out of her," he confirmed quickly.

He finally loosened his hands, apparently they were getting sweaty. As a practiced combat magician, you pretty much learn to harness your emotions so as to not mess up during a fight. Julius is losing said control; it tempted me to attack him with a hug. However, he's not mushy like Amos; he'd push me away once he realizes what I'm doing. Honestly, there are only two people that can get him to prove he's human and not a robot.

"I can keep secrets," I reassured. "You wouldn't believe how many Amos and I have."

He smiled for a second, stating that he figured as much. "Someone broke in this morning."

As you could probably imagine, I had a list of things go off in my head. The first being when and the second is why. Third goes to whom, and fourth goes to _again_ why. Julius cleared his throat after a minute had passed of our shared silence. "Amos' room is a disaster."

My eyebrows furrowed. Amos is notoriously touchy about said room. Seriously, he even changes the password to unlock it each week. And yes, I just said _password_, he doesn't do the nifty divine words to lock us out because he made the mistake of teaching me it. You're now probably wondering how he even managed to apply a password to his bedroom door. This happens to be 'simple statuary magic' at its best.

"How do you even know that?" I wondered, the door was closed last night from what I could recall.

"The door is wide open now. I'm not even sure the shabti he has attached to the door is still there." Julius shook his head as he returned on topic, "The guy that broke in probably did it, though I'm wondering how he managed to get in."

"Julius, you're sounding paranoid," I finally pointed out. "You sure you weren't hallucinating?"

His brown eyes stuck steadily on me, fury burning in his expression that made me back off a little. "I have my reasons, trust me," he managed to even his tone out to calm down.

Again, the nonsense called silence broke into our discussion. His tone has officially turned into a double-edged sword, threatening to slam my face into the dining table and yet trying to say he's not mad at me. "You two are up early," Aunt Nadia chimed as she entered.

Julius immediately relaxed, focused on her. "Yeah, trying to figure out where Amos' is hiding this time," I spoke up.

"Hmm," she managed as she poured herself a cup of coffee. Apparently that was all she wanted, meaning another sleepless night. "You two must understand; Amos needs space. He isn't like you two, running around with large groups of people. He'd rather stay hidden in a library. He might even consider the two of you annoying despite the fact that you're family."

Julius rolled his eyes. "Mom, we get that-"

Aunt Nadia glared him down, which just quickly made him shut up. "Look, he's put up with you and Desjardins for quite a bit. He probably went to readjust his tolerance level. _Now_," she turned to me. "I suggest the two of you get out of the mansion, walk around Brooklyn for a bit. Fresh air, if you will."

If I break my promise to Julius, she would be all over it. She'd know we're worried for good reason. However, Julius told me to keep my mouth shut. "Sounds good," Julius swiftly replied, ensuring I don't feel tempted to spill.

"Good, I expect to see you two when dinner is served. No earlier," Nadia put in, her green eyes back on her oldest.

* * *

"You, Kyra, are such a girl," Julius felt the need to input as my eyes stayed glued to the window display of expensive dresses.

"I wonder where you got that idea," I snarled as I faced him again. "Maybe the concept of me actually _being_ a girl helped you?"

He just chewed on his bottom lip, one glance at the display as a sigh of distress escaped. "I'm glad you can focus on something else."

I frowned; the idiot doesn't know how to just let things go for at least a moment. I know, I probably should be more focused on the break in, but thinking along the lines of what Aunt Nadia said, it didn't seem like it would even have a relation to Amos' sudden disappearance. My hands went to my hips, earning Julius' attention as I kept my eyes on his. "Have you ever wondered if you smother him with your 'big brother' attitude?"

This he brushed off immediately. "You still think I'm making it up? I saw the guy!"

"Then why isn't he one with the carpet?" My right eyebrow rose.

Julius' gaze hardened, miffed by my words. "I wasn't sure at the time if I was dreaming or not. I thought it over after I woke up the second time and walking past his room made me certain I didn't make it up."

Some guy in his late twenties gave us a weird look, which I responded by sticking my tongue out at him to avert his gaze just as fast. "Okay Julius, I'll worry with you so you don't feel alone." I didn't have to think very hard to come to this decision. "What did the culprit even look like?"

Julius thought it over for a second. "Black cloak, dark skinned, and braided hair with ruby beads. An inch taller than me. Big, not sure if he seemed muscular or maybe just a bit overweight."

"What kind of weirdo would wear ruby beads in their hair while robbing a place?" I quickly put in, of course being judgmental to my cousin's description.

He shrugged it off. "I don't know, nor do I care. He was just wearing them."

"Was the cloak a hooded thing?" I continued on.

"Yeah, he just wasn't covering his head at the time. Anyways, the thing that's bothering me most is he didn't leave anything behind that I noticed. Don't know if he took anything either." Julius sighed out of irritation as we continued on, walking past the display. "Why does Amos have to be anal about his room?"

"I trust it has something to do with his lack of socializing. Refuge, if you will." I picked up from where my aunt left off earlier this morning.

"_Yeah_," Julius shoved his hands in his pants front pockets. "Maybe he needs to be shoved into a huge crowd, let him get over it. It can't be healthy keeping to himself like this."

"I like Amos _because_ he isn't obnoxious like a certain loudmouth he has of a brother."

Julius just rolled his eyes again. "I think I got the memo from Caroline, you don't need to keep me updated on my annoyance ability. Can't I be worried about him? I mean, he needs to get out in the world and make a name for himself. I feel like he's just a shadow if my eyes drift from him."

_Perhaps it's because that's what he is; Julius Kane's Shadow._ I struggled to force these words back down my throat. Julius isn't at fault for it anyways. Actually, if anyone should be pegged for it, I personally believe that reward belongs to Uncle Jabari.

I was thrown off guard by Julius' left hand clamping down on my right shoulder. This wasn't some form of reassurance; it was more like 'stop in your tracks with me'. So I did, peering up to see his eyes almost squinting ahead of us. "What?" I finally asked, a little peeved that he hadn't just outright told me what was bothering him.

"I think I see him," Julius removed his hand now. "Act casual, we're going to follow him."

I looked ahead, not seeing anyone worth noting. Then again, Julius happens to be taller, he can see a little above the masses heads. "I'm assuming you're talking about Amos still?"

"It's the guy I was telling you about earlier, the one that broke in?" Julius reminded quickly, pushing onward that I followed without much hesitance.

"I'm going to laugh if it's some random local wearing a sweatshirt." I muttered under my breath, but part of me kind of hoped it was this guy so I could remember the idiot that thought it would be cool to break into the Kane home.

"Sorry, excuse me," Julius rambled off as he got far pusher with every footstep.

A few more feet and I began to notice glares the other pedestrians where shooting at us. Maybe the crowd will just knock us out at this rate. I shook my head and upped my pace, almost losing Julius in the mass of people otherwise.

He then tapped the man in front of him on the shoulder. "Excuse me Sir," he started as the man turned to take us in.

My eyes narrowed to the faint hint of glamor applied. Okay, I guess I should apologize to Julius for all of the paranoia claims I made. Under this glamor happened to be a black hooded cloak covering the usual magician linen clothing. Hair braided, but with obsidian beads. Dark sunglasses covering his eyes as he hesitated to stop.

"My sister and I are lost; could you tell us how to get to the Empire State Building from here?" Julius quickly spat.

This, obviously magician, man responded with a smirk. "Well, I think you're tall enough to look at the skyline and figure it out on your own. Good luck, and be careful over there." He quickly went to dismiss.

"Hey," I piped in, a little peeved by the guy's general attitude towards us. "You just got caught, bucko." I even pulled out my jaguar amulet for him to get who he was talking to. "Let's talk in private before some moron gets hurt, shall we?"

Julius quickly face palmed as the guy emanated a nervous laugh. "_Look_, you don't know what you're getting into talking to me, so move along and ignore my very existence."

"You broke into the Nome; I think you owe us a few answers," Julius went directly to the point, gripping the guy's left arm.

I followed as Julius marched our suspect against the crowd, entering an alleyway. For security sake we continued down a block, making sure the mass of pedestrians are less likely to hear us. Then Julius proceeded to slam the guy against the brick back wall of some motel.

"First thing, don't try anything or I won't hesitate to use this." Julius gestured to his sheathed khopesh. "Second, what is your name?"

The man's expression tightened, weighing the situation out I'm sure. "The name's Sebastian Dredger. Don't bother telling me who the two of you are."

"You probably looked the residents of the Nome up before planning to break in," I added in a huff.

Both of them ignored my words of course. "How did you break into my brother's room?"

This time I rolled my eyes. He wasn't at all wondering how someone snuck past the traps to protect the Nome? "Simple really, it's a shabti animating a door," Dredger shrugged off easily.

"What did you take?" Julius' gaze hardened.

"We'd like it back, then this will be done and over with," I added on as I crossed my arms.

"Nothing that concerns the two of you. Something that you wouldn't recognize as belonging to your Nome in the first place." Dredger finally waved away the weak glamor he had applied. "Surely you have other matters to attend to. Like finding your brother?"

Those words set Julius on the edge quite easily. Both Dredger and I tensed to the swing of his sword, the sharp tip just four centimeters away from the older man's chest. "He has a point, Julius," I stepped in, almost tempted to drive the sword away from the man.

His breathing remained even, eyes strictly on Dredger's sunglasses. "I think you know the next question then." Julius' tone held a hidden threat.

Dredger had a small smile emerge. "I suggest you try Argentina. The second powerful statuary magician happens to reside there." He gently redirected the khopesh with his right hand.

"I still want what you stole, Dredger," Julius snarled, lowering the sword to his side.

"I was _getting_ to that," the other rolled his eyes out of frustration, extending his right hand as he closed his eyes.

I've seen this before. Amos managed to make himself a Duat 'safe' despite Uncle Jabari's rants about how risky shoving your powerful possessions into the Duat is. I've been meaning to look into it myself with the help of said cousin, but they haven't had the time for me to ask. A few seconds passed with little success except to agitate Julius.

"Dredger," Julius' tone threatened as a reminder.

He didn't respond, still keeping his eyes closed. Half a minute passed when a familiar black iron staff appeared in his hand. Julius' eyes shot open in half surprise as Dredger opened his eyes. "I presume you mean this?" He observed the staff himself.

"You stole my brother's staff?" Julius snapped, probably breaking the last straw.

"Sure, let's call it that. You want it? You'll have to fight me for it." Dredger extended the staff to its full length.

Why did I chose today of all days to _not_ bring my bow and quiver with me? I took a step back as Julius raised his right arm, readying to fight. Dredger just twirled his staff with a simple twist of his fingers. A sudden roar of wind forced me to block my eyes from the dirt being picked up. When it died down, Dredger was gone.

"You want a fight and then run?" Julius snapped, slamming the curve of his sword into the brick wall to vent.

It took a second for me to even my breathing, wondering why he hadn't just tried to kill us while he had the chance. "He's making a game out of it," I managed to answer aloud for Julius and I both.

Julius finally removed his sword from the wall, sheathing it again. "Fine, we'll teach him to mess with combat magicians of the Twenty-First Nome," he finalized. "I don't know about you, but I think I need an Italian soda."

"And you say _I'm_ the one that gets distracted?" I smirked as he rolled his eyes again, gesturing me to follow him back the way we came.


	11. Chapter 11

-Carter Kane-

I stopped us behind the wall to the right of the glass sliding doors. The smell of smoke lingered, I could even see it seeping through the cracks of the doors. Taking a quick glance, they had apparently set the dining and buffet table on fire. Now they were kicking around the ashes from the dying embers in front of them. 'Them' being about four adult magicians, maybe Uncle Amos' age.

Kaden's brown eyes settled on me in an attempt to read as much as he can from my expression. "They destroyed the tables," I informed them.

Jaz's blue eyes lit up in surprise. "What kind of guests would drop by and burn-"

Quick movement of Kaden's right hand halted the rest of her words from escaping. "How many?" He whispered, keeping his tone controlled.

"Four magicians, roughly in their thirties." I answered, watching Jaz harshly remove Kaden's hand from her face, hidden rage aimed at the back of his head.

Kaden's right eyebrow raised a little. "Didn't ask for age, but okay. Got any plans you want to dish out?"

No, all I knew was I needed some form of backup once I noticed their arrival. "Hmm," Jaz attempted to huff off her irritation. "Carter is Pharaoh; we should try to talk first despite the inferno they just made of our veranda."

"They probably want that kind of reaction _because_ he's Pharaoh." Kaden muttered under his breath. "You need to think politically if you actually carry such a title. Otherwise you're not going to last long."

I caught myself glaring at him before I could stop it. Kaden shrugged it off though, pulling an iron staff out of the Duat. "I suppose confrontation isn't too awful of an idea, just be armed before we go out there."

I was about to protest, seeing as having weapons drawn already will edge it quickly into a fight rather than a talk, but Jaz seemed to support Anderson's words. "Don't worry, if this escalates, I'll be supporting your strikes." Kaden reassured.

I don't see how that's supposed to help any, but I finally pulled Ra's crook and flail out, peering through the glass doors again. Kaden quickly cleared his throat, earning my attention again as he eyed my weapon choice. "Those don't exactly qualify as weapons."

"Excuse me," I hushed in irritation, "you mind telling Ra that then?"

That seemed to make him back off, a suspicious look in his eyes. I took a deep breath before forcing myself to open the doors, allowing the smoke into the mansion as I stepped into the veranda, Jaz and Kaden at my back. Once the smoke cleared enough for me to see the four intruders, I cleared my throat, hands gripping Ra's weapons. _Think Pharaoh; proud and powerful._

Do you know how difficult it is to act arrogant in front of an audience of four adults? I'll tell you, I pretty much failed. Unfortunately, I don't have my Chief Lector to help sweep the mess up and support the act. "What do you think you're doing?" I managed to speak out, eyeing their staffs as they took us in as well.

"About _time_ someone responded!" The only female spoke with irritation. "The next step was to burn the glass doors."

"She's fire," I could hear Kaden's voice confirm for the three of us, making me wonder how he came up with that.

"Oh lookie here, we have the baby Pharaoh to welcome us even!" A scruffy guy laughed.

"Good evening, young king." The cleanest guy stepped forward. "We are here to discuss a certain meeting you plan to have with certain demigods in two days."

"Demigods?" Kaden questioned in his hushed tone still.

"Uh, I assume because you don't like the idea?" I asked for confirmation, but the ashes of the tables pretty much stated as much.

"Not particularly," he brushed some grey ash that landed on the right shoulder of his leather jacket off. "We call ourselves the Anti-Half-Humans."

"Oh boy, another lame ass group with a half creative name." Kaden spoke a little louder this time, earning glares from the adults as Jaz punched his left shoulder in hopes to get him out of whatever daze he's in. "Hey, just being honest."

"_Despite_ what you think, boy," the guy looking like he's trying to pull off a surfer look spoke up angrily, "our ideals are worth your attention."

"Why, you'll buy a new table and come back here just to burn it?" Kaden snarled.

"Is he challenging me?" The woman snarled, two piercings to her lower lip reflecting the sun off.

"No Alisha, just being a brat." The scruffy one answered quickly.

The leather jacket cleared his throat. "We're here to persuade you from making them our allies. You see, the actions you are taking are exactly what had led to our downfall in the first place. If you continue on this route, Carter Kane, we may never exist."

"If we make them our allies, then we won't have to worry about it," I argued.

"Yeah, that's what Cleopatra thought too," Surfer guy butt in.

"Basically," Mr. Scruff continued, "we're warning you about this meeting. You make a treaty with them, you _will_ fall to us."

"From laughter, of course," Kaden added in.

"You son-of-a-" Alisha took a step forward to end up having the surfer and scruff guy hold her back.

"That's enough; this is just a warning after all." Leather Jacket brushed her anger off. "You have time to think things over; we won't do anything until then."

"Because you need to plan a strategy-" Kaden was quickly interrupted by Jaz slapping her hand over his mouth this time.

I swear this Alisha woman wished she had the power to burn people with her glare. "I'll think this over," I spoke up, mentally noting to mention this to Uncle Amos. "Thank you for the warning, not everyone does that."

The man bowed a bit in respect. "We can be friends just as easily as enemies."

"Okay, let's go. This place smells like a day care center." The surfer insisted with a disgusted face.

"That's because it is, Zack." Alisha spoke with disgust towards Kaden.

The scruffy one made a portal and all four jumped through, leaving us with the mess they made of our veranda. "Word of the wise," Kaden gently removed Jaz's hand from his face, "prolonging a fight, like you _just_ did, gives morons, like them, time to organize."

"And laughing at them aggravates a fight." I swiftly turned back on him. "Okay, let's clean this up and get a house meeting as soon as possible."

* * *

Thankfully we were able to fix the tables to how they were before. In half an hour, the entire Twenty-First Nome was sitting at the dining table for the meeting I called for. "Everyone here?" I asked for confirmation.

The glass doors opened in response to find Khufu join us. "I believe that's everyone." Kyra confirmed for me.

"Good," I stood up now to find all eyes on me. "I just encountered a group that doesn't like the idea of allying ourselves with the Greeks and Romans."

"There's a good number of them out there," Kyra added in.

"Well, these guys are being vocal." I corrected. "They're threatening to take us down if we continue with the meeting we have planned."

"Oh boohoo." Sadie spoke up from the other end of the table.

I cleared my throat, trying to ignore my sister's commentary. "We _are_ continuing with it despite this threat. I called this meeting to warn everyone beforehand if we do find ourselves in another fight."

"We can refresh traps and prep everyone for combat again," Walt supported.

Bast frowned to the thought. "Is that all they want?"

"That's all they said," I confirmed with a nod.

Silence for a minute before initiates started whispering ideas to each other. "Well, since we are organized already, do you mind if I announce something too?" Kyra asked me directly.

That caught me off guard for a moment before a 'sure' escaped my mouth. My second cousin stood up now, earning everyone's attention this time. "As we have all already noticed, the Chief Lector has yet to make an appearance since last night."

"He mentioned taking a break before we entered the veranda," I spoke up in his defense.

Kyra just rolled her eyes. "Let me continue, Carter. I've been looking into the details of the fight he was refereeing before his disappearance and have concluded that he hasn't given us the slip."

"What do you mean?" Sadie piped up immediately.

I shot her a confused look when I noticed someone else stand up. Kaden Anderson, but he hadn't done so to say anything. Actually, he went for the glass doors to find hieroglyphs glow all over it, refusing to budge. "Yeah, we kind of figured you'd try to run." Sebastian spoke up. "Mind sitting back down and explaining a few things, Kane?"

My head started pounding to the sudden rush of information. Kaden pulled his staff now, eyes staying on Kurtz. "I don't know what you're talking about." He snapped with irritation.

Then proceeded to make a mad run to the edge of the veranda. Kyra sighed as she shook her head. I took a step away from the table, about to protest such an action. Before I let a word out, Sebastian snapped his fingers, Kaden suddenly dropped to the floor before he could reach the balcony.

"We knew you'd try an escape into the Duat too." Kyra spoke up, walking around the table, which I decided to follow to see what they did.

Kaden was struggling to free himself from the Ribbons of Hathor, and not having any luck, cursing in some language. "I'm so glad you had a pair handy." Kyra praised Sebastian, who just shrugged.

"Okay, what is going on?" Sadie asked now.

Sebastian Kurtz cleared his throat. "Kaden Anderson happens to be the 'missing' Chief Lector."


	12. Chapter 12

-Zia Rashid-

After the 'excitement' Kyra stirred up, the initiates were escorted out. Sebastian managed to get him to relax enough to sit in a chair again. "I knew it," Sadie muttered to herself.

"You knew that the 'new guy' happened to be your uncle?" I challenged, which she just glared at me.

"_No_, but there was something weird about him!" She defended.

"I'm not sitting here _listening_ to everything you're saying right now," Amos murmured.

I took him in again to see that he actually did have similar traits to the Chief Lector. "Okay, everyone calm down," Sebastian urged, sitting down himself. "Amos, you want some coffee before you get to explaining this mess?"

He immediately glared at him. "_I_ have to explain? What kind of alternate universe is this? Gods sitting at the dining table with magicians? The Kane home turned into a playground? _Demigod_ meetings? Oh, and let's not forget the wannabe Pharaoh sitting over there." Amos' glare landed on Carter now.

Kyra rolled her eyes. "Ignore him Carter, he's just confused," she quickly went to save him from whatever retort Carter may have been thinking up at the time. "And yes, if you want answers to that you'd still have to ask yourself, Amos."

"Qui serait même me laisser prendre charge de quelque chose?" Amos scowled.

Sebastian stood up to grab a mug from the buffet table, pouring fresh coffee in it. Then placed it before Amos on the table, sitting down again. Amos didn't cave, though he did note the attempt to calm his nerves down. "I'm not explaining anything," Amos returned to English again. "Help me find the book and I'll fix it myself."

"Okay, a book?" Kyra noted quickly. "What did this book do?"

"Throw me here; I don't remember you being this blind Kyra. If that's who you actually are," Amos challenged.

Kyra's right eyebrow rose questionably. "Do you really want to challenge me on that? I get the feeling you wouldn't appreciate it-"

"Because I appreciate what is going on right now," Amos pointed out, lifting his hands to hint at the ribbons.

"Hey," Carter finally spoke up, eyes stuck on Amos. "Let's dedicate a minute to calm down, alright?"

"Oh right, because I would take orders from the likes of you," Amos shook his head.

No one answered, keeping to themselves for a minute as Carter had asked. This teenage version of the Chief Lector started fiddling with his hands on the table. "How old are you?" Kyra was the first to finally break it, keeping her tone calm.

"Look," Amos straightened, keeping his eyes strictly on Carter now, "this isn't my first time kidnapped, okay? And I'll tell you that I also put those connards through enfer during my stay."

Kyra's posture straightened, "You never said anything of the sort before-"

"You really think I would go around taking people that look like my uncle hostage?" Carter snarled.

Sebastian peered at Kyra for a second. "Perhaps we should allow Kyra to talk with Amos alone."

"Uh no, you're not dismissing us!" Sadie stood her ground, Walt looking more than willing to persuade her otherwise.

"Yes, a removal of everything not as familiar to him may calm him down," Bast added on despite Carter's and Sadie's stance.

"Alright, everyone out. Sebastian, stay here," Kyra finalized.

I gently squeezed Carter's wrist as I led him out, Walt and Sadie ahead and Bast making sure the doors are locked. Once she finished this, she turned to take in the two Kanes pretty much in need of answers themselves. I mean, _I_ am too, who wouldn't be? Someone you see as an older figure suddenly shows up as your age?

Bast crossed her arms; apparently Sadie must have had a look stating she was going to sneak back into the veranda anyways. "We've been trying to figure the best way of confronting him; the best way so he won't get too aggressive anyways."

Carter went to protest, "Amos isn't-"

"-your uncle," Bast finished quickly. "Not _that_ Amos, he has yet to actually experience being an uncle yet. Nor has he matured as much as the uncle the two of you know." Bast sighed to the sight of Carter's fist forming in his left hand. "More pressing matters, we all need to prepare for this group that wished to pay us a visit."

"It's not something I'm overly worried over right now," Carter spoke through clenched teeth.

Bast's gold cat-like eyes took him in quickly. "Let us fix this, at least get him to warm up to everything. Then I'll let you make if part of your problem."

"Come on Carter, you can't do anything right now," I urged, hoping he'll drop it.

He refused to let it go, as if he was quickly thinking up ideas to get himself involved anyways. "You can show me how to make hot chocolate," I pressed on.

Carter hesitated, allowing his tension to ease of as he faced me. "Actually, I think I should contact a few Nome Leaders. We arranged to hold a meeting the same day of the demigod meeting."

"See about rearranging it?" I asked to see if I was on the same page.

"Yeah, if they show up before the meeting, I'm afraid some Nome leaders would take advantage of the situation," he dryly admitted. "Want to accompany me?"

"Of course, I'd love to."

* * *

So far so good, the Nome Leaders of North America agreed to hold it off until next week. Carter then called for St. Petersburg, and I could tell he's worried about how this conversation is going to turn out. I leaned myself against his right side, gently squeezing his hand in mine. "It's going to be okay, take a deep breath," I reassured, hoping to calm him down from his obvious tension.

The scrying bowl's oil revealed a young girl's face, roughly ten; give us an alarmed look in her eyes. "Eighteenth Nome, how can I assist you, Pharaoh?"

Oh good, even a girl her age can recognize the Pharaoh. Though it might be because Lady Menshikov is planning something against us. Carter cleared his throat, "Yeah, is Vika Menshikov in?"

The girl quickly frowned. "No, she actually should be in Brooklyn by tomorrow."

My right eyebrow rose to that. "Why so early?"

The girl smiled, a rather youthful and energetic smile. "Vika likes to be early; it allows her to evaluate the situation better than those that show up on time or late," she praised her Nome leader. "Also, she did mention that she wants to challenge the Chief Lector."

"Hold on, we haven't been told anything of the sort-" I started to protest.

The girl shrugged. "She thinks she can do a better job than Kane."

"Yeah, so I've heard," Carter spoke through clenched teeth. "Okay, is there a way we can contact her?"

The girl thought for a moment. "Hold on, I might be able to contact her for you if you'd like."

"Sounds good," I answered immediately.

The girl disappeared for a second before the oil switched to a more snowy background, a woman with her eyes hidden with her fur coat. "Hmm, you're about as impatient as your father, Pharaoh," Vika's voice snarled.

Carter frowned to that bit, "Vika, we need to talk about the meeting."

"I'm heading to New York as we speak, we can talk face-to-face," Vika insisted. "And dear Zia, are you _still_ playing the Chief Lector's secretary?"

Oh great, she just had to bring it up again. Carter stepped in before I could snap thankfully. "I've already arranged to postpone the meeting for a week."

Vika stood a little straighter, her hazel eyes quickly taking us in again. "Postpone? This is important, Kane."

"I completely agree, that's why I haven't canceled it instead," Carter continued. "I discovered having two meetings in one day is extreme, so it's probably for the best to space them out."

Vika's eyes hardened, a distressed look aimed at us. "It's something else, isn't it? Those pesky demigods threatening you?"

"No," Carter was quick to answer. "Actually, having a problem with some magicians that don't like the idea of allying ourselves with them."

"Carter," I hushed out. We had agreed not to say anything _because_ some Nome leaders just like Menshikov would take advantage of it.

Vika blinked out of confusion before her eyes narrowed. "Good, I'll be there early tomorrow morning. I'll defend you better than your baby of an uncle."

Wait, did she just say that? Carter squeezed my hand back when I realized I started snarling at the older woman. "If you insist, we'll see you soon," Carter replied.

She had ended the talk, returning the oil to its dark color. "I thought we decided _not_ to tell anyone about it," I reminded harshly.

Carter rolled his eyes. "Didn't you hear her? She wants to help, not overthrow us."

"How can you trust her so easily? Don't you remember her brother?" I took a step back, hands on my hips.

Carter frowned to the reminder, "Zia, I think he was messed up from Apophis in the first place. He was probably a better person than that, right?"

"I wouldn't praise the family if I were you. They are backstabbers, they pretend they're loyal and then proceed to make you slip up just before you realize the mistake-"

I was interrupted by Carter kissing me. That kind of irritated me further, but I let it go. A harsh cough from the doorway stopped us, finding Kyra smirking at the two of us as I took a step back. "I can wait if you want," Kyra offered.

"No, it's alright," I reassured.

Carter cleared his throat, "What's up?"

Kyra straightened her posture from leaning against the doorway. "I would like to have a few words with you, Carter."

"Alright," Carter agreed, a pause taking place for a minute.

"I need you to follow me to the library, if you don't mind," Kyra clarified.

"Oh, okay," Carter turned back to me as he gently took my hands in his.

"I'll contact the other Nome leaders," I spoke up.

"Thanks Zia, you don't know how much it means." Carter squeezed my hands a bit before letting go, following Kyra out.

* * *

**Translations:**

**Qui serait même me laisser prendre charge de quelque chose? = Who would even let me take care of something?**

**The rest are curse words, so I won't be translating those.**

**Thank you for reading and reviewing! It helps a lot to keep writing and posting.**


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